


The Different Colors of Magic

by KeepingItAnne



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Female Harry, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderbending, Master of Death, Master of Death Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-09-21 03:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9530144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeepingItAnne/pseuds/KeepingItAnne
Summary: “I gave you my number. I thought you might call.” Said the voice from behind the door and Hariel Lillian Potter 'Harry' wondered how in God's name she had landed in this situation.





	1. Protection is everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just something me and my BFF came up with, I don't know what to do next but I like the idea that this fic is taking. If you have any ideas or tips, I would love to hear them.  
> I will most certainly continue, this is not a one shot but I don't know when I will update this story.

“I gave you my number. I thought you might call.” Said the voice from behind the door and Hariel Lillian Potter 'Harry' wondered how in God's name she had landed in this situation. John stood before her with his coat open to reveal the bomb beneath it and Sherlock was thrumming with adrenalin besides her even though he tried to hide it. Two of Hariel’s best friends, in danger and she could do virtually nothing about it. She had been in many situations like this when she was an Auror but she could not chance using her magic out of fear the criminal mastermind would use it to his advantage.

Harry still wondered how she ended up in another dangerous environment, it has been years since her Auror days where she hunted the leftover death eaters. It has also been years since she had noticed she didn’t age anymore, this was due to the deathly hallows. The hallows had marked her as mistress of death therefor she could not age or die, she looked no older than 27 but in reality it had been ages. She didn’t like to count the years, it reminded her of all the friends and family she had lost to time. The years had passed fast and she had lost them all. The only things left are the memories she has of times with them.  
       The magical community doesn’t know she still lives, they all think a boy named Harry had saved them from Voldemort so many years ago. The higher-ups at the ministry still know but they leave her alone. Their laws don’t have any effect on her and she can do as she pleases. This is because she is the most powerful witch alive; she can do wandless magic and commands two different wands. Her favorite is her holly wand but she also possesses the elder wand which is way more powerful than the other.

Harry had met John Watson at a support group meeting, the support group was for soldiers with PTSD. She and the doctor had many things in common and quickly became friends. They had gone in search of another flat mate to share an apartment and an old friend of John had pointed them towards Sherlock Holmes. The trio had quickly bonded on the thrill of adventure and the chase of criminals that Sherlock provided. Sherlock and John didn’t know about her magic until the explosion happened not one day ago.

 **One day ago:**  
Harry had just succeeded in calming John and Sherlock down, they had an argument about John’s blog and Sherlock not knowing about the earth revolving around the sun. It was quite stupid really but she didn’t have much time to think about it. She had felt it just before it happened, the wards she had put around herself warned her something big and bad was about to happen. Her instincts took over and she flung her arms out and yelled “PROTEGO!”. John and Sherlock turned around to look at her and saw something you could only believe if you witnessed it. A rounded sapphire shield formed in the space Harry her arms indicated and a split second later there was an explosion. The detective and blogger felt and saw it happen but they were somehow protected by the shield that Harry had made.  
       Harry lowered her arms afterwards and the shield disappeared. There was no damage to the apartment but the street outside was covered in ruble. The duo looked at the girl in astonishment and Harry laughed. “Well, this is awkward.” She said  
       “What did you just do?” John asked.  
       “I may have saved our apartment from an explosion, some thanks might be appropriate.” Harry sassed.  
       “You made a shield by uttering the Latin word ‘protect’.” Sherlock said it like a statement not an question.  
       “Yes, I did.” Harry deadpanned.  
       “How?” John asked in astonishment while he looked at the raven haired woman before him.  
       “It is a lot of explaining to be honest so I’ll give you the short version; I’m a witch.” Harry said as she looked at her friends.  
       “You’re a witch?” John said in an unbelieving tone.  
       “Yes, do you want me to repeat myself?” Harry said.  
       Sherlock looked into her bright, emerald eyes and saw no lies in them. “Explain please.” The detective said.  
       “I have been a witch for my whole life, you are born with magic or you are not. When you are eleven you get a wand and go to a magical school for seven years to learn all about magic.” Harry explained.  
       “You have a wand?” John asked with raised eyebrows.  
       “Even better, I have two.” She answered him and produced both of them.  
       “You didn’t use a wand a few minutes ago.” Sherlock stated.  
       “I didn’t, that is wandless magic. It’s the most complicated form of magic and to my knowledge I am the only person in the wizarding community who can do that. You also have non-verbal magic, that is more common but still difficult.” She explained while the men looked at her wands.  
       “Why do you have two wands?” John asked.  
       “Long story. This is my first wand, the one I got a long time ago when I was eleven.” She said this while she held up her holly wand. “And this is the elder wand.” She held the wand in question up for examination. “This is the most powerful wand that has ever been made. You can’t lose a duel if you poses this wand.” John and Sherlock looked at the wands and had the same thought. Why does she keep the old wand if she has the elder wand. Harry could sense the thought and explained. “The elder wand is just a precaution, I like my holly wand more.” She left it at that, no need to explain the whole wandlore behind it all.

The men before her were silent and looked at her with anticipation. Harry smiled to herself and put the elder wand in a holster on her arm but didn’t store her holly wand. She could sense the need for a demonstration so she pointed her wand in the air and said “Expecto Patronum.” The effect was instant as a beautiful white stag flew out of her wand, galloped through the apartment and came to a halt besides the witch. Harry looked at it and gave a sad smile “Hello again Prongs.” She said in a soft voice.  
       “What is that?” John asked.  
       “This is a Patronus, a unique guardian animal who will protect you against dementors. A dementor is a creature that will suck all the happiness out of you if it is in your vicinity but it can also give you a kiss and suck out your soul. You can only cast a Patronus with positive thoughts and emotions like thinking about a pleasant memory. This would really difficult with a dementor nearby.” Harry explained and the Patronus disappeared afterwards.

“I have just one more question.” John said after they had settled down into their respective armchairs and had gotten some tea to dispel the shock “I met you at a support group for soldiers with PTSD but why?”  
       Harry looked at him and when he looked into her eyes he saw her age true age in them, they were sad and full of pain. “The reason I was there is quite simple John. It is because when I was two years old, the darkest wizard of all time tried to kill me after he had just minutes before killed my parents. He failed and died in the process but not after he had given me the scar I now currently have on my forehead. From that time on I lived with my aunt and uncle who despised the wizarding world and treated me no better than a slave. When I was twelve, I killed a basilisk; a snake as large as this apartment building with the most poisonous venom on this world. When I was fourteen, I was abducted and my blood was used to resurrect the wizard who had tried to kill me when I was two so he could try to kill me again. At fifteen years old I watched my Godfather die in front of me and when I was seventeen I was on the run, a wanted criminal of a corrupted government. That same year I became the savior of the wizarding world but not before I was temporarily killed by the dark wizard who had originally tried to kill me. That is why I went to a support group for soldiers suffering from PTSD, because I **am** a soldier. Every time I close my eyes, I see the people who sacrificed themselves for me. I was the chosen one, I alone could defeat him because neither could life while the other survived.”  
       “This happened just ten years ago?” John asked in astonishment and he looked into her eyes again only to see the incredible age he had seen just minutes before.  
       “No John.” Harry said with a long and sad sigh. “This happened a century ago. In the process of defeating the wizard I obtained an old power that will never let me die as long as I wield it. I won’t age until then.” The words were spoken with a finality and John didn’t inquire about it again.

 **Present day:**  
Harry looked on as the person behind the door walked into the room like he owned the place.  
       “Is that a British Army Browning L9A1 in your pocket? Or are you just pleased to see me?” He said as he walked nearer.  
       “Both.” Sherlock answered and he pulled the gun in question out. Harry gave a start of surprise at the sight of the gun, she did not expect Sherlock to carry any sort of weapon on him.  
       “Jim Moriarty. Hi.” The man said in a playful tone. “Jim? Jim from the hospital? Huh. Did I really make such a fleeting impression? But then I suppose that was rather the point.” He continued in a flirting tone as he looked at the detective before him and Harry shifted uncomfortably at the words. “Oh hello.” Moriarty said in a tone as if he hadn’t noticed her before she moved. “This one wasn’t present when we met.” He was right, Harry had been absent when Jim from IT met John and Sherlock. Harry looked in the eyes of the criminal and saw the same thing she had seen in the eyes of Barty Crouch Jr. so long ago, the man was intelligent and didn’t give a shit about the crimes he had committed, as long as it profited him in some way.  
       Moriarty on the other hand saw something he had never seen before; recognition, as if this woman had seen a man of his caliber before. “You’re something different aren’t you?” He said and Sherlock strategically placed himself somewhat before her. “Why did you bring your princess if you wanted to protect her, Sherlock?” The criminal asked with a teasing tone. Sherlock had opened his mouth to answer but Harry acted faster. She walked forward past Sherlock and John, Sherlock didn’t expect her to do so and was to slow to act but John saw it coming. The doctor wanted to stop her but he feared he would blow them all up if he made a sudden move so he just pleaded with his eyes. It was all in vain though, Harry was looking in the eyes of Moriarty when she moved forwards and she didn’t waver one bit, not until she stood in front of the criminal. “You’re not scared.” Moriarty stated. “Johnny boy over there is terrified of getting blown up and Sherlock is practically singing with nerves. But you… you aren’t scared at all. You really are something else, princess.” He finished.  
       Harry looked at the man before her, he was taller than she was so she had to look up slightly when she talked to him. “There is one thing I advise you to learn really fast if you want to survive an encounter with me.” She said as her emerald eyes bored into him. “I am not, nor will I ever be a princess. Don’t assume things about people, I have seen people more powerful than you meet their end through that medium. Most of them have met their end by my hand and I encourage you to learn from their mistakes.” There was a slight pause in her speech and the criminal before her looked at her. He could see the truth of her words in her eyes. God, those eyes, they were full of memories and experience, they spoke of a past he could not comprehend. “I also advise to stay away from me and my friends. If something ever happens to them because of you.”  Harry’s voice was low now, full of malice and contempt but also a promise and he could feel that this warning was no empty threat. “I. Will. Hunt. You. Down. And believe me when I say this; I will make you regret ever being born.” She finished.  
       Moriarty looked at the woman before him, she couldn’t be much older than 26 but he suspected she was 27. Her age was downplayed a bit by her unruly raven hair. She had a little bit of a fringe but it had moved somewhat due to her looking up at him and he could see the faint outline of a scar on her forehead.  
       “No one ever gets to me. And no one ever will.” The criminal answered but Harry had seen that coming, the man before her was brilliant but just arrogant enough to dismiss her. He would however think twice of crossing her, he had seen her eyes, the eyes that were too old for her face and he had seen the truth.

Later when Moriarty had gone not once but twice, getting called away by who knows what. Harry mused to herself if she hadn’t given away too much. Moriarty is a dangerously smart man but she just hoped that she could keep her friend safe without having to kill someone who had underestimated her. _This is Voldemort all over again, isn_ _’_ _t it?_ She thought to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it!  
> Any future ideas are always welcome!
> 
> -Anne


	2. A mysterious meeting.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first meetings of Hariel, John and of course Sherlock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please take note that this chapter takes place before the last one.  
> A reader by the name of LyrebirdSong asked for sherlock's first deduction of Harry and my brain just filled in the rest.

John hadn’t been as attentive in these meetings as his therapist wanted him to be. He had gone the first and the second time but he had skipped a lot of them after those. He thought they were nonsense, the talking was boring and everyone had a valid reason to be there, he had just been a doctor not someone who went into battle every day like most of the present men were. He had only gone this time because this therapist had made him go, something about antisocial behaviour and increased medication if he didn’t go. The beginning of this meeting was just as dull as the ones he had witnessed before. Listening to each other’s stories, most of them were fine but he had heard them before. There were a precious few who were real war heroes and he held true respect to them, they couldn’t help the other stories.  
       That is when the meeting was suddenly interrupted by a woman, she half ran into the room looking flustered. Some of the people around him didn’t notice her at first but John noticed her immediately. She had pitch black hair that just reached her shoulders, she had bangs, her hair was unruly and was all over the place. Her eyes were a piercing green and they looked quite guilty on that moment.  
       “I’s sorry to barge in so suddenly, I got lost and no one bothered to help me.” She spoke and her British accent was quite pronounced in her hurry to find the group.  
       “It’s alright, take a place. What is your name?”  
       “I’m Hariel Potter but please call me Harry.” She said as she took the only available place in the circle. This place just happened to be next to John and the soldier looked at her with noticeable interest. She was young, no older than 30 if he guessed right.  
       “John, do you want to talk today?” The leader asked as he interrupted the trail of thought going on in the mind of the doctor.  
       “I am afraid there is nothing much to talk about.” He answered.  
       “There always is John. How is life going?” The leader asked. It was the standard answer he always got from him and he found it was getting very annoying.  
       “Live is going good, much of the same.” The doctor said. “I still notice that I miss it, I knew what to expect on the battlefield and I knew that I was needed. Now I am just a veteran with too much emotional baggage.”  
       “You need to find a purpose.” A voice from besides him said. He was startled for a second because he expected the sentence to come from the leader but it had come from Hariel. “I’m sorry to just assume but I think I’m right, aren’t I?” She finished.  
       “It’s alright, I guess you are right though. Did you find one?” He didn’t say it with malice, he was genially curious. He could sense she was truly here to seek help, not to bother any of the men present.  
       “No, I haven’t and it has been a long time” She said with a small smile. “I have been trying since I was seventeen and look where I am.” She finished.  
       “Can you tell more about yourself Hariel?” Asked the leader.  
       “Please, call me Harry.” The woman corrected. “Well, there is the obvious stuff: I was a soldier, I fought in a war and I survived while others didn’t”  
       “Where did you serve?” John asked.  
       “Does it matter? I was a soldier in a battlefield full of other soldiers, some of them were on my side but most of them weren’t so I had to fight. Quite literally fight for my life.”  
       “So, you have killed someone?” The leader asked  
       They all saw her wince at those words. “I see it as protecting my friends and those who cared for them. I have seen many deaths and I will see more just like everyone else on the world.”  
       “You’re an annoyingly cryptic person.” John joked.  
       “I try.” Harry said with a small laugh.  
       “What do you do nowadays?” Asked someone from the group.  
       “I don’t do much, after the war I joined the police but after some time I had to leave. Not because of any legal reasons just because I was done being under someone’s command. Now I just try to entertain myself from time to time, nothing much.” Harry explained.  
       The meeting was done, it had been an interesting one which was rare John mused to himself. Harry had been a pleasant surprise, he had talked with her somewhat after the meeting. It had been an interesting talk, she was an intriguing person to talk to. They had gotten along right away and had made lunch plans somewhere next week.

The lunch had been delicious, John and Harry had talked about a lot of stuff and were now walking in the park both with a cup of tea. They had talked about London and how they loved to live in their current place of residence.  
       “It’s a shame my army pension is not big enough to live here.” John said.  
       “That is quite easy to solve-“ Harry started to say but she was interrupted by a voice who called out to John. It turned out to be one of John’s old friends from school who introduced himself as Mike Stamford. They chatted a bit and John explained their rent problem. Mike laughed and explained that they weren’t the first persons to tell him that this morning.  
       This is how Harry found herself in the morgue of a hospital looking at a handsome man with extremely sharp cheekbones.

“Bit different from my day.” John said when he walked in.  
       “You've no idea.” Was Mike’s answer.  
       Harry walked in after him and saw all the equipment surrounding a curly haired man. She knew that technology and magic didn’t really agree with each other so she strived to keep away from all the important equipment. She had of course discovered a way to use technology and magic at the same time but she still liked to keep a safe distance when the technology involved radio activity like some of the stuff in the room. Just to be certain.  
       “Mike, can I borrow your phone? There's no signal on mine.” Said the man who was surrounded by the machinery.  
       “And what's wrong with the landline?” Was Mike’s answer.  
       “I prefer to text.” The man said.  
       “Sorry, it's in my coat.”  
       “Er, here, use mine.” John said and handed his phone over to the man.  
       “Oh, thank you.” The man said as he took it from him.  
       “This is an old friend of mine, John Watson and his friend Hariel Potter.” Mike said to introduce her and John.  
       “It’s just Harry though.” Harry corrected.  
       “Afghanistan or Iraq?” The man asked John without acknowledgment of her statement.  
       “Sorry?” John asked.  
       “Which one was it? In Afghanistan or Iraq?” The man asked again.  
       “Afghanistan. Sorry, how did you...?” John said but he was interrupted by someone walking in and handing the man some coffee. Harry started somewhat by the sudden motion in the corner of her eye. She had made to grab one her wands that are holstered on her left arm but stopped herself in time. This was not the time nor place to use a wand.  
       “Ah, Molly, coffee, thank you. What happened to the lipstick?”  
       “It wasn't working for me.” Molly answered.  
       “Really? I thought it was a big improvement. Your mouth's too small now.”  
       “...Okay.” She said with and disappointed tone and walked out of the room.  
       “How do you two feel about the violin?” The man asked them.  
       “I'm sorry, what?” John asked.  
       “The violin?” Harry asked at the same time.  
       “I play the violin when I'm thinking and sometime I don't talk for days on end. Would that bother any of you? Potential flatmates should know the worst about each other.” The man said as if it was an explanation.  
       “You told him about us?” John asked Mike.  
       “Not a word.” Mike answered.  
       “Then who says anything about flatmates?” Harry implied.  
       “I did. Told Mike this morning I must be a difficult man to find a flatmate for. Now here he is, just after lunch, with two friends, one of them is clearly just home from military service in Afghanistan, the other one has also been in a battle of some sorts and is still skittish about it even though it has been quite some time since she had to fight. Wasn't a difficult leap.  
       “How did you know about Afghanistan?” John asked.  
       “Why do you think I was in a battle? Harry asked almost instantly after Jon’s question.  
       “Got my eyes on a nice little place in central London, we ought to be able to afford it. We'll meet there tomorrow evening seven o'clock. Sorry, got to dash, I think I left my riding crop in the mortuary.” The man said without any explanation  
       “Is that it?” Harry asked.  
       “Is that what?”  
       “We've only just met, and we're going to go and look at a flat?” John finished for her.  
       “Problem?” The man asked.  
       “We don't know a thing about each other. I don't know where we're meeting, I don't even know your name.” John said.  
       “I know you're an Army doctor, and you've been invalided home from Afghanistan. You've got a brother worried about you, but you won't go to him for help, because you don't approve of him, possibly because he's an alcoholic, more likely because he recently walked out on his wife, and I know your therapist thinks your limp's psychosomatic, quite correctly, I'm afraid. That's enough to be going on with, don't you think? I also know you don’t know Harry much more than a week.” Now he looked at Harry and began to unravel her.” “I know you are older than you like me to think, you have had your fair share of running and fighting in your life, you have no family or friends left and you have mourned for them but you go on with your life because that would not be the last time it happened.” He finished unraveling them and looked at them both. “The name is Sherlock Holmes, and the address is 221B Baker Street. Afternoon.”  
       John glanced at Mike and he just smirked and said “Yeah, he's always like that.” In answer of the unspoken question in his eyes.

Sherlock was quite pleased with himself after he had closed the door behind him, from the look on John’s and Harry’s faces he had deducted them right. John had been simple from the way he walked to the way he spoke but Harry had been something else.  
       Sherlock had always been able to deduce someone to their core after just two minutes of conversation but with Harry he had to stick to the basics. He could tell from her eyes that she had seen losses unimaginable, they also spoke of times gone by, way more time than the 27 years she looked like. She had jumped just a little when molly had walked in, a little movement but it spoke volumes. It told him that she used to be on the run, afraid of getting caught, she had to have looked for a miniscule movement in that time and her instincts had to be on point to react the way she had. She had also moved her right hand al little towards her left sleeve as if to grab for a weapon to defend herself. Her jacket had been a bit baggy on her arms but not enough to hide a knife but the movement had still been there and he believed there was something on that arm, it was just not visible through the fabric. He had also seen the distance between her and John when they had walked in, they didn’t know each other well and he would bet his life on the fact that they had just met the some days before. She had agreed to being a flatmate but didn’t know them both. Most people would go to family or friends but she did neither and when he matched that information with her loss he concluded that she must have lost all of her friends and family. He had also seen a resilience that spoke of a readiness of going through it again.

For a normal detective, it would have been a lot of information but to him it was next to nothing. He wanted to know why she had that resilience, what battle made her eyes so sad, why had she been on the run and what was the weapon on her arm? So many questions. He had to keep an close eye on her in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it!  
> Any future ideas are always welcome!
> 
> -Anne


	3. Not a real chapter, just some important explaining.

Okey, I know this is not a new chapter but I needed to address this. There has been a lot of confusion with the timelines of Harry and Sherlock.  
I know that the original version of Harry Potter can’t be a century old if the two worlds are connected because the Sherlock universe takes place in 2017 and the battle of Hogwarts was on May 2nd 1998.  
I should have specified that my version of Harry Potter takes place much earlier, during the first world war to be exact. Everything stays the same but the dates and seeing the first world war ended in 1918 it seemed fitting. So this is a sort of AU.

Now, I must say that I am **_NOT_** a history buff and know next to nothing about that time. All the things I write will come straight from Google and Wikipedia so please bare with me.

I have also been asked about Harry being a girl but the wizarding community remembering her as a boy. Well the answer is simple: things get lost in time, not big things but seeing it was not a very female friendly time..... So somewhere along the way it changed to the boy who lived and not the girl who lived.

I’m sorry that this is not a chapter but this needed to be cleared up. I love the support that this story is getting, I will most certainly continue writing and new chapter will be up soon!  
-Anne


	4. Wisdom is power.

Sherlock had been at it with all his cases, they flew by and John posted them on his blog. They were getting more and more clients these days but Harry didn’t really mind.  
       There was however the one moment when the press was outside one of the crime scenes. Sherlock had insisted on wearing a rather stupid hat and forced John to do the same. He began to order Harry as well but she just gave him a look and said “I will hex you If you force me to wear some stupid hat.”  
       Sherlock had closed his mouth and walked away. She followed him and John was behind her. The press had a field day with the photos. Sherlock looked rather stupid and John was wearing a somewhat sensible hat but most of them had focused on Harry. They were all speculating about her, who was she? Is she the girlfriend of Sherlock Holmes or is there something more juicy going on in the lives of the three friends? Harry had laughed at the stories that had come out in the papers, the press had a rather large imagination.

Then there was the case of the man in the field and the backfired car. She had gone with John to the crime scene while Sherlock stayed at home. She didn’t really mind and it was quite a relief to have limited interaction with the detective on the other side of the video chat.  
       Harry walked around the crime scene while John kept Sherlock in check. She liked it out here, it reminded her of the tent she and her two best friends shared so long ago. She had never been unarmed since that time. Even now she was armed with her wands, the elder in her arm holster and her holly her bun. It wasn’t the smartest place to keep a wand but she liked the cliché. No one bother to look for a weapon in the hair of a woman.

Harry’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a helicopter that was getting closer and obviously going to land in the clearing. John reached her side and explained that they were going somewhere but he didn’t know where exactly that was going to be. “You know,” Harry began as she looked at the helicopter “You muggles still amaze me, with all the technology you have made.”  
       John didn’t answer, he had gotten used to those comments even though getting used to Harry’s usage of magic was not as easy. They still didn’t know the scope of powers she possessed, every time they thought she hit her limit she amazed them again. In the beginning it was levitating some tea or summoning an item she needed at that moment. Later on she had immobilized Sherlocks body when he had annoyed her too much and some days later he had suffered from a tickling hex when he wouldn’t stop bothering her. She had also explained she could read minds if she  tried really hard but John doubted that.

Not long afterwards Harry and John found themselves in Buckingham Palace, John was rather flabbergasted but Harry wasn’t really surprised about the whole ordeal. They walked into a room with two sofas and Sherlock was sitting on one of them with a sheet draped around himself. John and Harry sat down next to him and stayed silent for a few second before John asked “Are you wearing any pants?”  
       “No.” Sherlock answered in a nonchalant voice.  
       “Okay.” John said with the same tone. There was a beat of silence but then the trio began to snort and laugh.  
       “Oh, I’m seriously fighting an impulse to steal an ashtray.” John said jokingly  
       “I can ask if I can take one with me the next time I visit” Harry implied.  
       Silence….  
       “You visit the royal family?” John asked.

Of course she visited them, she was friends with the royal family, she had saved Britain and therefore she was introduced to them after her little fiasco with Voldemort. She had known every king and queen that had ruled since then and sometimes she helped. Most of the time that help was advise but there was a fair share of listening and keeping their minds of the responsibilities of their job because even the ruler of a country needs to relax.  
       The royal family had long since accepted Harry’s age and didn’t question it anymore, she was just a constant rock in their lives they were happy to lean on and get their minds of things. Harry didn’t mind either, she could show a part of herself to them without any worries. They helped each other by keeping each other sane, even though Harry needed it more throughout the years than the other party.

“I saved the world by defeating the darkest wizard to date. Of course I know the most powerful family of Britain.” Harry said with a small laugh.  
       “And I expect my brother knows about this?” Sherlock said in an unsurprised voice.  
       “Actually, he doesn’t. He knows me but he doesn’t know that I’m a witch and all the stuff that comes with it.

 **Flashback:**  
Harry had met Mycroft before, It was a funny business. He had sent for her much like he had done with John. She knew what was about to happen when she had stepped into the car. She knew who Mycroft was due to her friendship with the crown whilst Mycroft didn’t know the important stuff about her but she suspected he knew about the wizarding world because of his position in the government.  
       “It’s very nice to meet you miss Potter.” Mycroft began.  
       “I know it is, I’m a damn delight to be around.” Harry sassed back to him.  
       “You aren’t very afraid, just like doctor Watson.” Mycroft stated.  
       “No I’m not.” Harry began. “John had explained about the man who had requested his audience, how you are the enemy of Sherlock Holmes.  
       “So you figured it out it was my car.”  
       “Yes I did, it wasn’t hard, but we both know you aren’t Sherlock’s enemy.”  
       “And why would you think that?”  
       “Because enemy’s don’t look after each other, do they?”  
       Mycroft stayed silent, he didn’t like the tone of this woman’s voice.  
       “Let’s cut to the case,” She began “I am not going to spy on Sherlock and I will not take any money from you. So I will take my leave and you will not try to bribe me again.” She finished as she walked towards the car.  
       “Why do you think I look after him?” Mycroft asked.  
       Harry stopped when she opened the door to the backseat “Because that is what older brothers do, don’t they?” She said with a backwards look before she took a seat. The car drove away before Mycroft had collected himself enough to question her on her last answer.

 **Back at the palace:**  
“What are we doing here, Sherlock? Seriously, what?” John asked Sherlock  
       “ I don't know.” Was his answer  
       “Here to see the Queen?” Harry suggested  
       “Oh, apparently yes.” Sherlock says as he sees Mycroft walking into the room. The three of them start laughing while Mycroft glares at them. “Just once, can you three behave like grown-ups?”  
       “We solve crimes. I blog about it, Harry threatens master criminals and Sherlock forgets his pants. I wouldn't hold out too much hope.” John sassed.  
       Mycroft’s eyes flick towards Harry when John says her name but focus on the wand in her bun as his eyes narrow. _He defiantly knows about wizards, which isn_ _’_ _t surprising seeing his position in the government. It_ _’_ _s surprising he just finds out, not that I_ _’_ _ve given him any hints._ Harry thought to herself.  
       Harry was right, Mycroft had made the connection in his mind. This explained a little bit of the stuff he had gathered about the woman before him. This was also the moment Mycroft noticed Sherlock’s clothes. “We are in Buckingham Palace, the very heart of the British nation. Sherlock Holmes, put your trousers on!” Mycroft said angrily.  
       “What for?” Sherlock sounded like he could care less.  
       “Your client.” Mycroft answered  
       “And my client is?”  
       “Illustrious in the extreme.” Said a man who just walked into the room. “And remaining, I have to inform you entirely anonymous.”  
       The three companions stood up from the sofa as Mycroft introduced the man wo turned out to be called Harry too.  
       “May I just apologies for the state of my little brother.” Mycroft stated.  
       “A full-time occupation, I imagine.” Was the answer he received. “And this must be Dr. John Watson, formerly of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers?” He asked.  
       “Hello, yes. John answered as he shook hands with him.  
       “My employer is a tremendous fan of your blog.”  
       “Your employer?”  
       “Particularly enjoyed the one about the aluminum crutch.”  
       “Thank you.” John said and gave Sherlock a look that said: _Look there Sherlock, the queen reads my blog. Better give it some more respect mate._ And cleared his throat a little to emphasize it.  
       “And Mr. Holmes the younger,” The man continued “you look taller in your photographs.”  
       “I take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend.” Sherlock sassed back. He continued before Harry could be introduced to his namesake. “Mycroft, I don’t do anonymous clients. I’m used to mystery at one end of my cases, both ends is too much work. Good morning.” And he walks off.  
       He is stopped however by Mycroft as the older brother stands on his sheet and Sherlock is forced to stop before he showed to much skin. “This is a matter of national importance . Grow up!” Mycroft almost hissed in anger.  
       “Get off my sheet!” Sherlock half growled.  
       “Or wat?”  
       “Or I’ll just walk away.  
       “I’ll let you.”  
       “Boys, please. Not here.” John interrupted.  
       “Who. Is. My. client?” Sherlock almost growled.  
       This is when Harry thought it best she stepped in. “I think I can help the situation somewhat.” She stated.  
       “And how do you plan to do that?” Mycroft said with a snappy voice, still somewhat angry at the current situation.  
       Harry turned towards her namesake and said a single phrase “Lightning has struck.”  
       With those words the atmosphere instantly changed. Mycroft stiffened, Sherlock and John looked at the woman with questions in their eyes and the other Harry looked surprised as he answered. “And the on with seven souls,”  
       “Shall parish by the hand of the one who lived.” They finished in unison, Mycroft finished the code with them and looked at the woman before him with narrowed eyes.  
       “You have your own code?” John asked Harry in astonishment.  
       “Of course she does John, what if someone wanted to impersonate her to get close to the royal family.” Sherlock answered before she could.  
       “It’s an honor to finally meet you Miss. Potter.” Harry said as he shook her hand.  
       “That code was made by king George the fifth on May 2nd 1918 for one person only.” Mycroft stated.  
       “I know, I was there, I remember.” Harry said, which caused more suspicion on Mycroft’s end.   
       “You expect me to believe that you were present when that code was made.”  
       “I was more than present, the code was made specifically for me after I died and saved the world.” Harry said in a matter of fact tone. “But you don’t have to believe me because I am not here to convince you, I am here to help Sherlock solve a case.” She finished  
       “I am sure that he isn’t needed anymore now that we know you are on the case.” The other Harry said.  
       “No, you are wrong. You think I will just solve your problems like that?” She said with a snap of her fingers. “You are wrong. I am done doing things for a government that doesn’t care about consequences.” She pulled the  wand out of her bun, let her hair fall down and pointed it a Sherlock. With a small flick and a wordless spell he was in a suit and the sheet folded itself and laid itself on the little table between the two sofas.  
       There was a silence after the demonstration that she interrupted and Harry put her wand in the dual holster on her arm beneath her coat “I am here to help Sherlock, so let’s cut to the case and stop expecting me to do anything at your back and call.”  
       Mycroft was one of the first to recover and motioned for everyone to sit down. He explained the case to his little brother. He had elected to ignore Harry. John on the other side was fascinated by his friend. Every time she surprised them with something new. With all her spells and character quirks, she was a soldier, a savior, immortal and a witch and above all the most impressive woman he had ever met, truly a force to be reckoned with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is more to come, I've already started the next chapter.  
> I hope you liked it.
> 
> -Anne


	5. Mischief managed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was an emotional chapter and I may or may not have driven my proof reader to tears. I'm sorry but I just couldn't help myself.
> 
> Warning!  
> This chapter has some assault mentions, please keep in mind that this could be a trigger.

Mycroft’s case was a clear one: Someone had pictures of someone in the royal family and he wanted them back. Sherlock, Harry and John were sitting in a cab on their way to the woman’s address. Sherlock had stolen an ashtray and they all snorted at the look on the detectives face when he showed it off.

They got out of the cab and Sherlock said “Punch me in the face.” to John.  
       “Punch you?” Harry asked.  
       “Yes, punch me, in the face. Didn't you hear me?”  
       “I always hear "punch me in the face" when you're speaking, but it's usually subtext.” John said  
       “Oh, for God's sake!” The detective exclaimed and promptly punched his best friend. John recovered quickly and punched back.  
       “Thank you, John, that was-“ Sherlock began to say as he straightened but was interrupted by John, who tackled him and grabbed him in a chokehold.  
       “Okay, I think that's eno-“ Harry began to say.  
       “You want to remember, Sherlock, I was a soldier. I killed people!” John interrupted.  
       “You were a doctor!” The detective answered in a frustrated tone.  
       “I had bad days!”  
       “I think I have a better idea on getting us in.” Harry cut in. The duo before her stopped and they both asked in unison “How?”.  
       Harry nodded at that answer and began explaining as she ripped the right sleeve of her coat and made her hair more disheveled than it already was.

Some minutes later Harry rang the doorbell of this supposed Adler woman and made sure she was the only one in view of the little camera lens.  “Hello?” came a female voice from the intercom.  
       “I am so sorry to disturb you but I need help” Harry began to say as she put her arms around her waist as if she was violated in some way. This showed off the rip in her jacket and Harry made herself smaller as she continued talking. “I’ve just been-” She said as if she couldn’t finish the sentence and she tried again “T-There was this man and he-“ But she stopped again mid-sentence. “He- I-,” She started again and she let some tears fill her eyes. “I need to call the police and I don’t want to walk home first, I’m scared he’ll find me before I reach it.” She said in a desperate voice as she looked into the camera.  
       The woman buzzed her in without any objections and Sherlock and John followed her.  
       Harry still had her arms around her waist as if to protect herself from an invisible person.  
       “We saw what happened, I’m a doctor and he helped get the guy off her.” John supplied as the woman led him to the kitchen where the first aid kit was.

Harry was ushered to the living room by Sherlock under the pretense of keeping an eye on her. The act was over as soon as they were out of the sight of the lady.  
       Harry walked around the room while inspecting it. “You can always guess what kind of person someone is by the living room.” She stated to no one in particular.  
       “I thought that I was supposed to be the detective.” Sherlock said from his seat on the sofa.  
       “Shush and let me do my part of the plan.” She said without looking at him. She took her holly wand out of her holster and did a quick summoning spell. No result…  
       “Why doesn’t it work?” Sherlock asked.  
       “It should have worked. I think we need to go over to plan B.” Harry answered as she holstered her wand again. “unless-“ She began to say but she was interrupted by a woman.  
       A very naked woman.  
       “Lady, I don’t know who you are but you need to put some clothes on.” Harry stated with enough sass to set the building on fire.  
       “I think you know very well who I am.” She answered while staring in Sherlock’s eyes.  
       That was the point, she did answer Harry but ignored her at the same time. The conclusion was that this ‘Irene Adler’ was already annoying her. First the summoning spell didn’t work and now she was just some decoration Sherlock brought with him?  
       “Me knowing who you are doesn’t take away that you need to put some clothes on. Did you know that it is normally frowned upon when you entertain guests while naked?” Harry pointed out with annoyance while Sherlock was staring at the woman like she was the world’s greatest puzzle.  
       John decided that that moment was the best moment to walk into the room with the ‘first aid kit’ (If you could call it that… The ‘kit’ was just a bowl filled with warm water and a little towel.) and immediately stopped in his tracks. He looked at Harry and asked “Why is our hostess naked?”  
       “Haven’t the foggiest, I tried to inquire but I didn’t get a clear answer” Harry answered as she crossed her arms and gave a rather pointed look at the Adler woman.  
       “Can you children please leave the room, mommy and daddy need to talk.” Irene Interrupted.  
       “Oh, that is rich!” Harry said with a sarcastic laugh. “A parent joke, what is next? A magic trick?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed at the last question, just like Harry expected. She wanted to keep going but John stopper by grabbing her by her arm and practically dragged her out of the room and closed the door.  
       “What was that all about?” He practically hissed in a low voice.  
       “Just a hunch” Harry answered in a serious tone. “I think I am right but I need some time to confirm it. We are on plan B by the way, the spell didn’t work.”  
       “Alright, I’ll grab a newspaper or something. You stay here.”  
       Harry nodded and began to pace around somewhat while John searched the foyer. I will need my wand if I’m right Harry thought to herself. She began to reach for her holly wand but decided otherwise and grabbed the elder wand instead.  
       John was busy with the lighter and newspaper and almost had a little flame going as Harry decided to put her hair in a bun again. She had the feeling she needed some real power in an inconspicuous place, so she put the elder wand in her hair just as the fire alarm was going off.  
       The next moments went quick, John was swatting the newspaper in an effort to put out the flames just as four men walked down the stairs and just shot the alarm to shut it up and almost immediately pointed their guns towards Harry and John.  
       “Well thank you, but I think shooting the alarm was a little over the top” Harry implied as she put her hand on her head and thanked God she had put her wand where she could reach it quickly.  
       John and Harry were ushered into the other room and Harry was to see that Irene was wearing Sherlock’s coat. The three of them were pushed on the floor and three of the men put a gun in each of their necks.  
       “Open the safe” Said the fourth one with an American accent while pointing a gun at Sherlock.  
       “American. Interesting. Why would you care?” Sherlock said.  
       “Sir, the safe, now, please.”  
       “I don’t know the code.”  
       “ We’ve been listening. She said she told you.”  
       “Well, if you’d been listening, you’d know she didn’t.”  
       “I’m assuming I missed something. From your reputation, I’m assuming you didn’t, Mr. Holmes.”  
       “For God’s sake. She’s the one who knows the code. Ask her.” John yelled.  
       “Yes, sir. She also knows the code that automatically calls the police and sets off the burglar alarm. I’ve learned not to trust this woman.” Said the American.  
       “Mr. Holmes doesn’t-“ Irene began to say but she was interrupted by the American. “Shut up. One more word out of you, just one, and I will decorate that wall with the insides of your head. That, for me, will not be a hardship.”  
       Sherlock glared at the man holding the gun not ten centimeters from his head.  
       “Mr. Archer, Mr. Smith. At the count of three, shoot Doctor Watson and his female companion.  
       “What?” John said in a panicked voice.  
       “Big mistake big guy.” Harry almost practically spat. She had to suppress the impulse to just jump to her feet and whip her wand out but she feared they would shoot her friends if she did. She could survive a bullet to the head, her friends wouldn’t.  
       “I don’t have the code.” Sherlock hissed.  
       “One.”  
       “I don’t know the code.” Sherlock repeated in the same tone.  
       “Two.”  
       “She didn’t tell me. I don’t know it!” Sherlock was yelling now.  
       “I’m prepared to believe you any second now.”  
       Sherlock looks across to Irene who lowers her gaze pointedly downwards, as if to tell him something.  
       “Three.”  
       “No, stop!” Sherlock yelled  
       The American held up his hand to stop his two friends from shooting the duo and John slumped somewhat in relief. Harry began to move her right hand somewhat towards the wand in her hair as Sherlock was punching in the numbers of the code to open the safe. She had it firmly in her hand when the safe gave a triumphant beep to indicate it was the good code.  
       “Thank you, Mr. Holmes. Open it, please.” The American said.  
       Sherlock looked at Adler again and saw her look away and give a little jerk with her head.  
       “Vatican cameos.” Sherlock almost said with an urgent tone. John understood the code immediately and threw himself to the ground. Harry didn’t but she understood the gist of it and cast a wordless protection spell over herself, John and Sherlock.

Sherlock opened the safe and quickly ducked down as a gun went off inside the safe and hit Mr. Archer in the chest who was directly in front of it. Sherlock immediately went for the gun of the leader and whipped him across the face as soon as he won the struggle between them.  
       John was free of Mr. Archer and tackled Mr. Smith who was the one holding a gun to Harry’s neck. He was struggling to gain the upper hand when Harry got to her feet, grabbed the elder wand out of her bun, pointed it at Mr. Smith and yelled “Stupefy!” The effect was immediate and the man was thrown back and hit the ground unconscious. She whipped around and used the same spell in the last American in the room.  
       “Thanks Harry, what did you do to them?” John asked.  
       “I stunned them. They will be out for some time but I need to obliviate them before the police get here.” Harry answered.  
       “Obliviate?”  
       “Memory charm, it removes memories. Don’t want them to think I actually hexed them.”  
       “What about Adler?” John asked.  
       “I think it isn’t needed. Or am I wrong about that?” Harry directed the last part towards the woman in question. “Nifty protection spell you’ve got going on around that safe.”

“What are you-“ Irene began but she was interrupted by Harry who held a hand up. “Don’t start, I’m not some dimwitted ministry bloke. I could sense a magical flare when I tried to summon those pictures, you’re a witch aren’t you? Am I right if I assume you went to Hogwarts?”  
       “Slytherin.” The woman supplied.  
       “Let me guess, Peeves was a little shit?”  
       “Of course but there also was this one red haired ghost, a Gryffindor that liked to join in on the pranks, headmistress Granger always seemed to go easy on him. Two years later a second ghost joined him, identical apart one thing: he was missing a left ear. You might remember them as the twins seeing as you went to Hogwarts a few years later.”  
       “Yes.” Harry said with a heavy heart. “I remember them.” Harry tried to play it down, she looked like she was 27 and she needed to play the part. If she really was 27, she would have gone to Hogwarts when Adler was long gone. “I heard that there was this horrible teacher named Umbrige a few years before the battle of Hogwarts” Harry began. “She tried to take over the school and managed to temporally kick Dumbledore out. The twins decided to drop out and start their own joke shop but they wanted to leave in style. So they waited until the exams and right in the middle of them they set of this huge box of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Fireworks and flew out on their brooms while it was complete mayhem. Right before they left they yelled “Give her hell from us, Peeves.” And you may know that Peeves never takes an order from a student but this time he swept his hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George flew away. The next weeks were hell for Umbrige, everyone made certain of it. In my opinion it was the best thing they had done to date.”

Somewhere in the middle it stopped being a story and became a memory, Irene didn’t notice and Sherlock was outside shooting a gun in the air but John did. He saw the loss in her eyes and could almost feel the heaviness in her voice. Then he noticed the little smile on her face, the smile was sad and he knew that she had known these twins when they were alive. All he could think of was how much this woman before him had lost in her live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter!  
> Ideas are always welcome.
> 
> -Anne


	6. Harry Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!  
> There are mentions of depression in this chapter. Please realize that this could be a trigger!

It was the next day and it was made clear that Miss Adler would not be separated from her camera phone, the whip marks on Sherlock’s face were evident of that point. Mycroft had asked Harry for a second time to acquire the pictures for him but she had refused him again. He had visited 221B Baker Street and had tried to convince them all to try again.  
       “I won’t go and tidy up your mess Mycroft.” Harry said as she levitated a cup so Mrs. Hudson could put some tea in it. The older woman had once walked in on Harry magically cleaning the apartment and took it in strides from that point on. She had been shocked of course but she cared for the woman who could keep Sherlock in check if John was incapable. She dotted over her and Harry had to admit it was nice to have a motherly presence in her life again, it was so long ago since Mrs. Weasley, she had almost forgotten what it felt like.

“The photographs are perfectly safe.” Sherlock explained to his brother.  
       “In the hands of a fugitive sex worker.” Mycroft retorted.  
       “She’s not interested in blackmail. She wants... protection for some reason. I take it you’ve stood down the police investigation into the shooting at her house?”  
       “How can we do anything while she has the photographs? Our hands are tied.”  
       “She’d applaud your choice of words.” Sherlock joked while John and Harry snorted. “You see how this works.” Sherlock went on. “That camera phone is her ‘Get out of jail free’ card. You have to leave her alone. Treat her like royalty, Mycroft.”  
       “Though not the way she treats royalty.” John joked as he gave a sarcastic smile and Harry snorted at the words.  
       “Did you know there were other people after her too, Mycroft? Before you sent John, Harry and I in there? CIA-trained killers, at an excellent guess.” Sherlock asked   
       “Yeah, thanks for that, Mycroft.” Harry said with a sour look as she remembered the spells she had to work that day, obliviating people was not an easy task.  
       “It’s a disgrace,” Mrs. Hudson began. “Sending your little brother into danger like that. Family is all we have in the end, Mycroft Holmes.”  
       “Oh, shut up, Mrs. Hudson.” Mycroft said in annoyance.   
All heads swivelled towards Mycroft that moment. “MYCROFT!” Sherlock yelled while John exclaimed “OI!” But it was Harry’s reaction that scared Mycroft the most. She looked him in the eye and said in a low but threatening tone “You take that back Mycroft. Right now.” Her eyes were steal and he saw her hand twitch towards her wands. Mycroft cringed and quickly apologised to the landlady. Sherlock didn’t look surprised at the power Harry had over his brother but John looked at Harry, seemingly with new eyes. She hadn’t even raised her voice and the oldest of the Holmes did as she commanded.

Time passed quickly since that day, they had their adventures and fun and suddenly they found themselves in December. Everything was festive and a small group of friends had gathered themselves in 221B. Harry was wearing a emerald green jumper with a big golden H on it. The thing looked old, a little dishevelled and was one size too big for her but you could clearly see she cared about. She swayed to the music Sherlock was making with his violin, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade were present even though he looked somewhat uncomfortable , Mrs. Hudson had drank enough of the whine to be tipsy and had forced the detective inspector to dance with her to the music. Harry was still swaying to the music when John walked in with some tea and snacks. “John!” Harry exclaimed. “Come here and dance a little.” John laughed and shook his head to decline the offer but Harry was one step ahead of him and practically skipped over to him. “Don’t be such a spoil sport John.” She said as she grabbed him by the hands and practically pulled him to the open space where she was swaying not seconds before.  
       John decided to just go with it, he was still awkward mostly because the music was slow and he was forced to put his hands on Harry’s hips while she put her arms on his shoulders. They were close to each other but not too close as they swayed to the music. “How drunk are you right now?” John asked as a joke. Harry laughed and nodded towards Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade “Well, I’m not as tipsy as Mrs. Hudson but that doesn’t mean I am 100% sober right now.” She answered with a little smile.  
       “Alright, I’ll take that as a little drunk.” He said with a small smile. “Also, what in heaven’s sake are you wearing? It looks possibly ancient.” John asked as he nodded towards her jumper.  
       “Don’t insult the jumper John, that’s rude. Have some respect for your elders.” Harry said with a knowing look.  
       “My elders?” John asked with some snark the tone of his voice.  
       “Yes, your elders. I am decades older that you are and this might be a shock to you but this jumper was a present when I was eleven, it is 101 years old so show some respect.” Harry said with a giggle. John’s moth opened and closed like a fish and he questioned if he heard Harry correctly. “How old are you exactly?” He asked in astonishment.   
       Harry’s eyes twinkled as she leaned closer towards him. They weren’t swaying to the music anymore but standing still as Harry moved closer to his ears and said with a soft voice “I was born in July.” She paused a second as if to think back throughout the years. “The 31st of July 1900.” She pulled back and saw the astonishment in Johns eyes. “This jumper was my first meaningful Christmas present and I would be devastated if I lost it.” Harry went on, slightly embarrassed by the look John gave her.  
       The look John gave her was different from the looks the looks she normally got when she told people about her age. He was startled about her actual age but he truly looked at the woman he was once again swaying to the music with. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties, he had witnessed some of her endless power throughout the months but the most important thing was her character. He had grown to know her and he could see the slight hero complex she had, she cared for the people around her even though she knew she would outlive them. She was going to see them age while she stayed the same, seemingly frozen in time, it was an lonely existence and he pitied her for it. It was logical she would hold on to her jumper, the first important present she had ever gotten and he had to admit she looked cute while wearing it. It was slightly to big, the sleeves were a little too long and the body was a little bit baggy but it fitted her. She was wearing skinny jeans beneath it and it shaped her legs beautifully, the jumper was thigh high and John caught himself wondering how those jeans would look if she was wearing a normal shirt that wouldn’t reach that low.  
       John pulled his head out of the gutter, this was not the time or place to have such thoughts. Sherlock was done playing the violin and Lestrade had escaped Mrs. Hudson and was having a heated conversation with Sherlock. John and harry had stopped dancing when the music stopped and John took a seat in his normal chair while Harry walked to the kitchen to get a drink. She didn’t know where the impulse to dance with John came from but she didn’t question it, it was nice to once again spend a Christmas with the people she cared about. This party was good and she liked to let loose once in a while, this meant more alcohol.

Harry made certain that she was out of sight and flicked her hand, two glasses appeared, seemingly out of thin air and filled themselves with an amber liquid. Harry grabbed the glasses, walked back to the living room and went to John to offer the second glass to him. He took the drink with a questioning look but Harry just said “Just drink it, you’ll like it.” as she took a seat on the armrest of his chair. She crossed her legs and sipped from her glass and smiled at the slight burning sensation she felt. John mirrored her actions but was soon coughing when the drink began to work on him. “What is this for drink?” He asked between coughs.  
       “This is firewhiskey, it gives a slight burning sensation and fills your body with courage. It is a popular drink but not as popular as butterbeer.” Harry explained.  
“Butterbeer?”   
       “Butterbeer is also an alcoholic beverage but not as strong as firewhiskey, it can be served both hot and cold and it is my favourite to be honest.”  
       “Why did you bring firewhiskey if butterbeer is your favourite?”  
       “Firewhiskey is stronger and it makes me think of times gone by, when I drank this with my friends. It’s nice to remember them once in a while”  
       “Really? Isn’t it sad to keep thinking about the past?” John asked in a tentative tone, he didn’t want to offend the woman sitting on his armrest.  
       “It is,” Harry said after a beat of silence “but sometimes it is different. If you ever lost family or friends would you try to forget them?” She asked as in a rhetorical question. “No, you wouldn’t” She answered for him. “You would think back at the times you enjoyed with them and hope they were in a better place now. That is what I do everyday. Yes, there are times when I feel lonely and sad and I will always miss them but they had lived their lives until they had to meet death. I of all people must understand that mortality can not be escaped and everyone must accept it in the end.”  
       “But you said you couldn’t die, how can you understand mortality if you can’t die?”  
       “I know death like no other, I may be the only person in the world who understands them.”  
       “You say that as if death is a person.”  
       “I wouldn’t say that death is a person exactly, death is more like a consciousness, a being of some sorts. It can take a human form but it isn’t a person like you or Sherlock.”  
       “How do you know this?” John asked, mouth almost agape.  
       “Throughout the years there were dark times, loosing people takes a toll on you and I didn’t know how to live with it at that time. I had lost a lot of friends and I didn’t see the point of living anymore.” Harry said in a soft tone and a bowed head as if she was ashamed of herself. “I tried everything I could think of, poison, jumping of cliffs, you name it and I have probably tried it. Every time I woke up without a scratch and every time there was a presence that I couldn’t explain. Later when I was more stable to think, I came to the conclusion that this presence might have been death. After some more thinking and speculating it dawned on me. I have conquered death, therefore I am the mistress of death and maybe death can’t exist without a master or mistress, I would have to pass the power if I ever want to leave this place. But I couldn’t do that to a person, to have to force someone to live while everyone around them died. The powers I have are too dangerous to carelessly dismiss or pass on.”  
       “What happened, what made you acquire those powers?” John asked  
       “It is a long and complicated story, it would fill multiple books and then some.” Harry deflected the question and drained the last of her firewhiskey. “It is not something I would like to talk about, not now at least. It’s Christmas, let us celebrate these merry days and let the past rest for a while.”  
       “You’re right, I’m sorry. Here I am, questioning you like you are one of our clients.” John joked  
       “It’s alright, I would also be curious if I were in your place.” Harry reassured him and patted his knee to emphasise this point. She let her hand stay there when she had stopped patting but neither John nor Harry noticed. The only one who did notice was Sherlock, he didn’t judge or insult them, he just smirked a little to himself and he had to admit that he wasn’t even surprised by this development.

 

The night took a turn from that moment on, it wasn’t like the beginning where they all danced and laughed together. Sherlock had found the camera phone and had gone to the morgue to look at the body of the woman. Harry and John wanted to go with him but he made them stay home and Harry was getting more angry by the minute. Irene wasn’t a likable person but she had been a witch. Harry wanted to know if this was real and if it was real, how did it happen? The woman was a witch and people in the wizarding world didn’t die easily. Harry had been pacing around the room for about half an hour when she decided it had been enough. She whipped out her phone and dialled Sherlock who didn’t pick up. This didn’t help her mood so she proceeded to call the second to best number in her phone and luckily this person did pick up their phone.  
       “I hope this is an emergency Miss Potter.” Said the voice that answered the phone.  
       “Yes it is Mycroft, are you in the morgue right now?” Harry asked in a aggravated tone.  
       “We just arrived and are about to see the body.” Was the answer she got.  
       “Don’t.” Harry demanded.  
       “Why wouldn’t we see the woman?”  
       “Just give me some time, I need to be there.”  
       “We don’t have the time to wait for your arrival.”  
       “She was a witch Mycroft and I want to know who got the jump on her.” Harry snapped, she didn’t want to reveal that little bit of information but there was no other way for Harry to stall the Holmes brothers. “Send Molly away and give me and John three minutes.” Harry bargained.  
       “Make it two.” Mycroft said and he hung up.  
Harry put her phone away and turned toward John who was sitting on his chair looking into tho distance. “John we need to leave, we are going to the morgue.”  
       John had heard a little bit of her conversation with Mycroft and put two and two together. He all but jumped out of his chair and began to walk towards the stairs.  
       “That is not needed, we don’t have the time to take a cab.” Harry said as she stopped him “We have two minutes to get to the morgue.”  
       “But we will never reach it in just two minutes.” John protested.  
       “You’ll be surprised.” Harry said with a smirk. “I will count to three, on three you’ll take a deep breath and won’t let go of my hand.” She said as she grabbed his hand firmly.  
       “Why?”  
       “I don’t have the time to explain, just take a deep breath and hold it. One,”  
       “But-”  
       “Two,”  
       “Harry-”  
       “Three.” Harry spun around and apparated them both out of there. It wasn’t a nice experience for John, he hadn’t taken the breath and he felt his lungs restrict when they were apparating. They landed and John took a multiple deep and gulping breaths while Harry patted his back.  
       “I’m sorry John, side along apparition isn’t fun. I should have explained but we had to hurry.”  
       “It’s nice of you to drop in” Said someone at the other end of the room, Harry was still a little disoriented but her instincts kicked in and did the work for her. She was lightning fast and grabbed one of the wands out of her holsters, she didn’t check witch one she grabbed, any one of them was just fine. She had grabbed the elder wand and pointed it towards the person who was talking and shouted “Show yourself!”  
       They were in the morgue but she couldn’t see Sherlock or Mycroft anywhere, John had collected himself enough to stand up straight. The room wasn’t completely lit and someone walked from the shadows towards them. John let out a relieved breath when he saw it was Sherlock and made to walk towards his friend but Harry stopped him with an outstretched arm.  
       “Harry, what-?” John began to but he stopped when he saw the look in the womans eyes. There was mistrust and a lot of resolve, the look of someone who you are not advised to argue with.  
       “Hostility is not needed Harry.” Said Sherlock.  
       “A formidable woman is dead, she was a Slytherin and Slyterin’s won’t go down without a fight Sherlock.” Harry bit back.  
       “And we are going to solve this case.” Sherlock promised.  
       “Where is Mycroft?”  
       “In the hallway.”  
       “I need you to answer me this Sherlock;” Harry began, still pointing her wand at him. “What did I call my patronus when I casted it and why did I cast it in the first place?”  
       “Why do you want me to answer that? You were present last time I checked” Sherlock said with a little smirk.  
       “Just answer the bloody question Sherlock!” Harry almost yelled with urgency.  
       “You called it Prongs after it glopped around the room.” Sherlock answered. Harry visibly relaxed and lowered her wand a little but she was still waiting for the second part of the question, Sherlock could see that and answered the last part with a slight sigh as if it was an annoyance. “If you must know, you casted it as an demonstration of magic after you protected John and I from a explosion outside of the apartment. You stopped the explosion with a simple protection spell you casted with your wand.”  
       Warning bells were ringing insides Harry’s mind, Sherlock would have remembered she hadn’t used a wand that day, it had been wandless magic.   
       Harry didn’t hesitate, she raised her wand and yelled: “Incarcerous!”. Thick ropes flew out of her wand and wrapped themselves around ‘Sherlock’ as he was flung back by the force of the spell. He fell to the ground while wasn’t able to move as Harry marched towards him at a furious pace. John followed behind her in a daze, he really didn’t know what was going on right now.  
       “Where is he?” Harry asked in a furious tone. “Where. Is. Sherlock?” She asked the impostor. He just grinned at her and laughed.   
       Harry an John both froze when they heard the next words coming from the other side of the room in a singsong tone. “He is alive if that is what you are asking.” Moriarty said as he walked towards them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo, major cliffhanger here. I hope you liked it.  
> I have already written the next chapter, I just need to edit some parts and it will come your way!
> 
> I would love to hear all your ideas.
> 
> -Anne


	7. We have a Serius problem.

“Where is he?” Harry asked in a furious tone. “Where. Is. Sherlock?” She asked the impostor. He just grinned at her and laughed.   
       Harry an John both froze when they heard the next words coming from the other side of the room in a singsong tone. “He is alive if that is what you are asking.” Moriarty said as he walked towards them. He stopped a few pases away from them as Harry and John turned around to face him.  
       “I see why you befriended Sherlock” Moriarty mused “Hariel Lillian Potter.” He said her name like it had been a difficult puzzle and he just solved it. “A descendant of Harry Potter himself, the boy who lived, the saviour of the wizarding world. You must have inherited your power from him.”  
       Harry smirked at the clearly wrong description of herself and raised her wand “What gave ‘that’ away?”  
       “I’ve just discovered the wizarding world some months ago but I have been studying your history books, Hariel isn’t such a big leap from Harry and you look like the descriptions I have read of the boy who lived. You have black unruly hair just like him and the same eyes. You also have that scar on your forehead just like him, I would have thought you were him but you aren’t a boy.”  
       “You are right on that front, I was a girl last time I checked.” Harry said with snark.  
       “It doesn’t matter if you are a boy or not, I want to know why you have the same exact scar as he had.” Moriarty half demanded.  
       “Demanding things when a witch points a wand at you? You’re insane, that is what you are.” Harry stated.  
       “I know! Isn’t it great?” Moriarty said in his iconic voice “But there is one thing wrong with that description. You didn’t mention that I have kidnapped one on the witch’s best friends.”  
Harry scowled and grabbed her wand more firmly but she had to admit he had a point. He had Sherlock, she couldn’t do much on that front.  
       “Put the wand away and we could negotiate the return of your friend.” Moriarty said after a minute of silence. Harry grumbled but did as Moriarty suggested and put her wand back in its holster. “What are your conditions on getting Sherlock back?” Harry asked.  
       “I have an easy solution, you two come with me to get him and I’ll hand him over to you”  
       Harry didn’t trust him but she had no choice. “You will deliver the real Sherlock, not someone in disguise?”  
       “Don’t be silly little girl,” Moriarty grinned “He will be your Sherlock and he will be alive.”  
       Harry’s eyes became steal and she glared at the man before her. It made him remember the first time they met. She had been such a wild card but now she played right into his hands. He had to admit that he liked the girl more when she was more edgy, now she was just some puppet he could control and she was perfectly dancing to the beat. He didn’t remember the Harry that had threatened him, he had put it away in his mind, the girl was just a plaything now not the woman who had warned him of herself.

Moriarty had taken Harry and John to his car, it was parked outside and the driver held the door open for them. Both of them sat facing Moriarty, John was nervous that was evident but Harry was fuming. She really wanted to hex the person in front of her but he was the one with the location of Sherlock, she could do nothing or she would never find Sherlock alive. Moriarty was just grinning at them and looked towards Harry. “Now tell me Miss Potter, why does a witch with your power still bow to the will of the good?”  
       Harry looked back at the criminal and simply said “I do not ‘bow’ to anyone. I do as I please, the good side is just lucky that my views align with them. It would be a dark day for the world when I decide to change those views.”  
       There was a long silence in the car until John spoke up “Why kidnap him? Why didn’t you just kill him?”  
       “My, my, John.” Moriarty began to say in a interested tone “Do you want your friend to be dead?”  
       “Of course I don’t want Sherlock to die but this is not your style. You wouldn’t kidnap him and just bring us to him. You would make a game out of it. You wouldn’t kill him either because dead people get listened too and you don’t want to be in the paper, not yet.”  
       “You”re right but I really want to know more about Hariel and I have the feeling more people will notice if I kidnapped her instead of Sherlock. I have the feeling she is more important than he will ever be.”  
       “People who try to kidnap or kill me tend to end up dead.” Harry said with a nonchalant tone. John looked at her with raised eyebrows but didn’t comment on that statement.  
       “Is that so?” Moriarty mused. “I have to admit, you are really tempting me right now. Maybe I’ll put that to the test on a later date.”

The ride went on for a few more silent minutes until the car stopped. The driver opened the door again and Moriarty was the first one to step out of the vehicle as Harry and John followed him. They were greeted by an almost empty warehouse, the only things present was a crew of people looking like thugs. There were standing about eight people in front of two cars making it look like one of those movie scenes where two groups meet on a location to make a deal but always end up shooting each other. “What is the point of this Moriarty?” Harry asked getting aggravated.  
       “Just a little detour, dear. I had to take advantage of you in some way.”  
       “What are you talking about?”  
       “This might be a dangerous business deal, I was simply in need of some ‘bodyguards’.”  
       “So?”  
       “How dim are you?” Moriarty asked in an annoyed tone. “I am the only one with Sherlock’s location. I die, he dies too. You will have to protect me.” Moriarty stated with a manic grin on his face.  
       Harry narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t say anything, he had an point but she hated it. Moriarty started walking towards the group in front of them so Harry and John were forced to follow him. They did but stay a few steps behind him.  
       Moriarty spoke up to talk to the group in front of him “Is it done Simmons?” he asked the leader of the group.  
       “Not yet.” Was the answer he got.  
       “And why isn’t it done Simmons?” Moriarty half growled.  
       “Lets just say I got a better deal from someone else.” Simmons said and whipped out a gun, aimed it at Moriarty and pulled the trigger.

Harry’s wards hadn’t warned her, mostly because it wasn’t she or John who were in danger but she had been cautious and had already pulled out her holly wand. She had raised it and lazily said “Aresto Momentum.” The bullet stopped in mid air, Harry walked towards in and plucked it out of the air. She half turned towards Moriarty and he just gave her a look. A look that said to deal with them in his way. She glared back at him and turned around towards the group before her, pointed her wand towards them and suddenly noticed her hand was shaking.   
       She had to do this, for Sherlock. She had to help her friend but at the expense of others? Moriarty wanted her to kill them but could she do that? Her mind ran through all the possible spells she could use but none of them had an happy ending. There was one spell that would leave casualty’s but most of the men before her would survive. Moriarty wouldn’t be happy but he would have to deal with it. She decided it was her best chance, she proceeded to point her wand away, towards one of the cars and said “Confringo.”  
       The car exploded and burst into flames, the blast was big and most of the crew in front of her were hit the ground in front of them. Harry swivelled a bit and pointed her wand at the second car and cast the same curse. Both of the cars in front of her were burning and Harry turned around to face Moriarty. The man before her was livid “What did I say?” He growled.  
       “Actually, you didn’t say anything about killing people.” Harry glared at him while she said this.  
       “This will cost you dearly.”  
       “You needed a bodyguard, so I acted as one.”  
       “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I really say bodyguard? I MEANT ASSASSIN!” Moriarty was yelling the bit.  
       “Do I look like an assassin for hire?” Harry bit back.  
       “It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you are. I have your friend and I will kill him if you don’t comply. Now do as I say or you will never see Sherlock again.”  
       Harry mulled over this information and came to an idea. She didn’t want to kill these people and she wasn’t going to do it either. She looked over at John who gave her a mournfully look not liking either of the outcomes presented to them, she just looked at him and gave a almost unnoticeable wink. John blinked and questioned why the witch would do that in this situation. Then he saw her raise her wand again towards one of the remaining men and she shouted “Stupefy!”. John was a little bit flabbergasted when he saw the men fall to the ground as she cast the spell again and again with a grim face but then it clicked in his mind. Moriarty didn’t know this was a stunning spell, he saw the men fall and the look on Harry’s face and assumed that this was it. There was no objection to the spell from him and it was evident he had just studied her history but not her spells and curses. It was a big gamble on Harry’s part but it payed off and she was glad it did. John was happy but was battling not to show it on his face as not to tip off the criminal in their midst. Harry was done after a few minutes and turned around to look at Moriarty. The look was full of hatred and John was happy the look wasn’t pointed at him. Moriarty didn’t even blink, he just grinned and walked back towards the car and made a dismissive gesture for them to follow him.  
       They were sitting in the car again and Harry was still glaring at Moriarty. The man in question was grinning at the woman “Honestly,” he began. “You would say this was your first time ending some lives.”  
       “Believe me, that was far from the first time.” Harry said with a sour look.  
       “Could have fooled me.”  
       “Are you going to bring us to Sherlock now or not?”  
       “Yes, yes. I’ll get us to Sherlock, no more stops along the way.”  
       “Good.”  
       The next half our of the ride was silent, neither Harry nor John minded that. They were slowly moving throughout London but they did not pay attention to the world outside of the car. After those thirty minutes Moriarty spoke up.  
       “I still wonder why you have the same scar as the boy who lived.” It sounded like a statement but Harry knew there was more to it that that. It was a silent demand for answers and Harry didn’t want to give them to him.  
       “Sorry.” Harry said with as much fake empathy she could muster. “Family secret.”  
       “Family secrets indeed, all of you Potters are surrounded by them. That is a lot, even for wizards.”  
       “If you are so keen on my history you should read more books, I’m in a lot of them, mostly because of what happened during the war.” The tone of Harry’s voice made it clear that this conversation was over, Moriarty wanted to question her further but they arrived right at that moment.

They were at an abandoned warehouse, again. Harry wondered why so many unsavoury types always had to pick such a stereotypical spot for their criminal activity’s. Couldn’t they just rent a nice house in the country or something? That was just as secluded as this pace. They walked inside and it was much like you would expect from a place like it: it was filthy and hollow. The only things present were some spotlights pointed at a man who was slumped over in a chair. His hands were bound behind his back and he looked like shit. It took no time at all for Harry and John to discover that this was Sherlock. They shouted his name and ran towards him while Moriarty stayed behind, chuckling.  
       Harry freed Sherlock with a quick wordless spell and John caught him as he almost toppled forwards onto the ground. He quickly examined him but he came to the conclusion that his best friend was just exhausted and bruised, nothing more. Sherlock stirred a little in John’s grip and began to wake up.  
       “John?” He questioned as he half woke up. He turned around and saw his other friend standing there. “Harry? What are you two doing here?”  
       “Getting your arse to safety.” Harry stated and John chuckled.  
       “Not so fast.” Was what Moriarty said from some steps away from them.  
       “What now?” I did what you asked, NO, demanded of me and you promised Sherlock alive and well.” Harry bit back.  
       “I did.” Moriarty said. “But I didn’t say I would let you all just walk away.” He finished with a grin. “OOPS!” He said in a fake surprise voice as three lasers were pointed at them. John and Sherlock froze but Harry didn’t, she was livid. She grabbed the elder wand out of her holster and fired a quick protection bubble each of her two friends. She heard gunshots but felt no pain so she figured that the shots were fired at her two friends and since none of them screamed in agony she figured out her protection spell worked. Moriarty held up a hand to stop the snipers and took a good look at the woman before him.  
       “Do you really want to know why I have the exact same scar?” Harry asked with a voice that could cut through ice. Moriarty didn’t answer but he didn’t have to, Harry was already answering the question he had asked her twice. “There was no boy who lived.” She said with a growl and the look Moriarty gave her was quite funny if she wasn’t as mad as she was now. “There was a girl who lived, a girl with raven hair and emerald eyes. A girl who got a scar on her forehead when she was just one and a half years old because she somehow defeated the wizard who killed her parents. She became a celebrity before she could even talk.” Harry paused and Moriarty began to grasp how wrong he had presumed her to be. She wasn’t some puppet that danced to the songs he provided, she had cut those cords from herself long ago. Harry continued talking “You ask why I bend to the will of the good? I do not bend to anyone's will, I have died by the hand of my parents killer and I woke up seconds later just to kill him for the eighth and last time. I saved my world because I liked it and I still do. I AM the girl who lived and I am 117 years old. I saved the world not because of duty but because of the ones I loved. I will warn you this last time Moriarty, I can make you scream of pain and beg for death without even touching you, I can make you do things that are even appalling to your twisted mind, I can make you forget your whole life and make you just as helpless as a newborn baby and most importantly: I can kill you by uttering just two words. Don’t go after my friends again. I. Will. Fuck. You. Up. Try to hurt them again and you won’t know what hit you. I have mastered death and death is eternal, you won’t be able to hide from me and I will make you pay.”

Harry was done with her speech and walked towards John and Sherlock. Moriarty was flabbergasted for a lack of better words and to be truthful he was scared, the strange emotion was quickly covered up by rage as he saw this woman walk back to her friends. “Kill her!” He half growled/ half yelled as she reached Sherlock and John. She had grabbed them by the arms and her hands passed trough the wards she put around them with ease when the bullets hit her. There was a sickening sound as one of the bullets hit her in the left shoulder, the second bullet hit her one centimetre away from her heart and the last bullet went trough the left side of her neck. Moriarty expected screaming and panic from the group before him, for Harry to fall and scream in agony as she bled out.  
       Harry did indeed crumple to the ground with a thud and a cry of pain as John and Sherlock let out exclamations of dismay and scrambled to the floor besides her. Harry’s blood was pooling on the ground as Sherlock tried to stop the bleeding and cursed everything in existence as his hands covered the seeping wounds in her chest and neck. John franticly searched for her pulse as he muttered to himself. “Don’t die, please don’t fucking die. Don’t you dare die on me Hariel!” He gave a triumphant cry as he found it and but was quite astonished, the pulse was strong and showed no sign of slowing down, all in all not the heartbeat of someone who was shot three times. John heard a little chuckle and presumed it to be from Moriarty but was surprised once again when the chuckle evolved into real laughter. The laughter didn’t come from the direction of Moriarty. No, it came from the woman laying on the ground. Harry had her eyes open and was laughing, she showed little signs of pain as she gathered her feet under herself and stood up without any help from John or Sherlock.  
       She looked ominous, she was covered in her own blood and you could clearly see the bullet wounds in her body. The blood was still running freely but showed signs of slowing. “That ways quite painful to be honest.” She said in a musing tone as she looked down at her wounds. Moriarty didn’t answer her, he just looked at her with astonishment as John and Sherlock came over their initial shock, straightened and stood next to her. Harry faced Moriarty again and saw the questions in his eyes. “It has been a long time since that trick worked Mr. Moriarty. You’ll have to try better the next time.” She said with enough snark in her tone to anger the man before her as she grabbed her friends again and apparated the three of them out of there.

Later on Moriarty discovered that he wasn’t angry. No, he wasn’t. He was scared shitless by a woman who claimed to be the master of death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There has been a lot of changes in this chapter, I hope it wasn't that evident. I've changed the ending somewhat and edited little things this whole week.  
> I hoped you liked it.
> 
> -Anne


	8. Going home.

Harry had apparated the three of them back to Baker Street, John and Sherlock slumped over gasping for breath as Harry stumbled to the couch and sat down with a grunt of pain. John was the first to collect himself and looked around. “We’re back at 221B.” He just stated.  
       “Don’t be daft John, how could we be?” Sherlock stated but stopped when he looked around. “We’re back at 221B.” He repeated in amazement, “How can we be back?”  
“We apparated, its like magical teleportation.” Harry answered as she looked down at her body.  
       “Magic can make you teleport?”  
“No shit, Sherlock.” Harry said with a eye roll. She touched her wounds and winced a little as she had taken a lot of strength to downplay the injuries when she faced Moriarty but now she was tired and in real pain. This could never kill her, no death wouldn’t let her go so easily but that didn’t mean her body wasn’t in pain. It was however already healing itself, the blood had already stopped flowing and the wounds were slowly closing. it would take an hour until she was completely healthy again, there wouldn’t even be scars to prove of the wounds. There was just one problem though, there were still some bullets in her body. The wound in her neck was a through and through but the chest and shoulder injuries weren’t and she knew from experience that it wasn’t fun to leave the bullets there. She couldn’t use a summoning charm because the objects were in her body and to summon something to yourself that resides in your body isn’t the way to go about it, there was only one solution and it wasn’t going to be fun for everyone who was involved.  
       “John, I need you to grab the big first aid kit we have, I need help before my body completely heals itself.” She said and John did as she demanded. They had a huge medical kit in their apartment, mostly due to their strange clients and their many enemies. John was gone for a solid minute before he entered the room again with a big trolley, it was red and had a white cross on it. “Why do you need the kit if your body can heal itself so quickly?” Sherlock asked.  
       “My body can heal, yes. But it can’t expel any unwanted material that might be stuck inside it.” John gave her a questioning look as he opened the kit and Harry explained further. “The bullets, my body cant push them out. It is really painful if they stay inside my body when it is healed. I won’t die but I will be in pain until they are dug out so        I need you to remove them John.”  
       “Why me? I am hardly a surgeon.”  
       “You are a bloody doctor John.” Sherlock said with raised eyebrows.  
       “Look, either you do it or I do it myself.” Harry cut in. “And believe me when I say that I rather have you do it. I’m hardly experienced. You just have to pull out the bullets from my chest and shoulder so it will heal on its own, no stitching required.”  
       “Are you sure you want me to do it?”  
       “Wasn’t it obvious before? Just get the stuff you need from the first aid kit and get those bullets out of me ASAP!” Harry was getting frustrated and John could see it. He hurriedly got the stuff he needed and proceeded to go to work. It was an surprisingly fast process and he was done within five minutes. The process however was not as smooth for Harry as it was for John. It was a painful affair, she had to grip the couch with clawed hands and clench her teeth together so she wouldn’t scream. She knew it had to be done so she didn’t resent John for doing as she asked but she did hate Moriarty for putting her in this condition.

John straightened when he was done and Harry let out a breath of relief. She made to stand up but was stopped by John who put an hand on her uninjured shoulder and pushed her down on the couch. “I just dug two bullets out of your body. You need to rest.” He said with a pointed look.  
       “Moriarty knows about the wizarding world, I can’t just sit here and let him do what he wants. I am going to meet with the minister of the wizarding world and get a pardon from him.” Harry said with a business like tone.  
       “A pardon?” Sherlock asked.  
       “Yes, most muggles like you two get obliviated right after experiencing some form of magic. There are however some exceptions to that law, they are mostly the muggle prime minister and other important people like the queen and your brother. You won’t lose your memory of the magical world around you if you are on the same list as them. Moriarty knows about magic and I am certain he will use it to do some awful stuff and we can only fight him if you know what he knows.” Harry explained.  
       “Can’t your ministry just remove his memory like they do with normal people?” John asked.  
       “They can do that of course but only if they catch him and I doubt he will make it easy for them.” Harry said.  
       “He only knows about the history of magic so far but I doubt he will leave it at that. He would want to know more about spells and curses.” Sherlock supplied.  
       “Yes he would and that is why you two are going to learn it too.” Harry said.  
       “Wait.” John said. “You are going to teach us how to use magic?”  
       “No, you can’t learn how to use magic. You are either born with magic or you are born a muggle. Instead I am going to teach you how magic works and how someone like me can use it.” Harry explained.  
       “How?” Sherlock asked.  
       “I have an idea but I need to pass it by the minister.” Harry said in a secretive tone.

John had forced Harry to stay on the sofa until she was healed properly and the witch only grudgingly listened to him after Sherlock pointed out that she needed to rest. This didn’t stop her from contacting the minister though, she had sent her patronus with a message to him, it didn’t come back but another patronus did. John and Sherlock couldn’t make out what sort of animal it was but Sherlock suspected it was something in the range of an hedgehog. It had spoken with a male voice and said that the minister would arrive within ten minutes via flu.  
       “What is a ‘flu’?” John asked.  
       “You’ll find out in a few minutes.” Harry answered, not wanting to explain anything right now.  
       “Also,” Sherlock began to Harry’s dismay “You can pass on a message with an patronus?”  
       “Sherlock. You just saw me receive a message from the minister of magic via patronus, what do you think.” She deadpanned.  
       There was silence for a few minutes until the fireplace roared with emerald flames. Sherlock and John jumped to attention and were quite surprised when a man wearing some sort of travel cloak stepped through them.  
       “How?” John said.  
       “Magnificent.” Sherlock exclaimed.  
       The man who just arrived looked at them and pulled out his wand as he muttered “muggles…” beneath his breath.  
       “Minister, please don’t obliviate my friends.” Harry said as she got to her feet with a slight grunt. The minister looked up at her and paled visibly.  
       “What in Merlin's name has happened to you Miss Potter?” He said in a baffled tone.  
       “I had an disagreements with some bullets. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” She added the last part as an afterthought.  
       “These wounds look quite painful, maybe a trip to St Mango’s is in place?” He offered.  
       “There is no need minister.” Harry said as she held up a hand. “I have requested your presence for two things not for you to bring me to the hospital.” She finished as the minister took the hint that she was fine enough to stand on her feet.  
       “Fine, I’ll listen.”  
       “Point one.” Harry began as she held up her one finger as to demonstrate that this was indeed her fist point. “Me, Sherlock and John here have been hunting a master criminal by the name of Moriarty. He has learnt of the magical world and he will soon use it against us even though he is a muggle himself. I need Sherlock and John to remain with their memories, they will need to be put on the list of muggles not to obliviate.”  
       “This can not happen easily Miss Potter, how do I know if this Moriarty is worth such a hunt?”  
       “He is a criminal mastermind and he doesn’t do emotions. He is indifferent but petty, he will do everything in his power to further himself and he will do this using magic if he can. He is smarter than Voldemort ever was and his mind games go further than Dumbledore’s ever did.”  
       The minister winced at the sound of the name Voldemort to the surprise of John and Sherlock but he agreed to her first request. “What is the second favour you need?” the minister asked.  
       “You have to remember minister, I don’t do favours. Not after what I did for the world. You all owe me more than these little requests.” Harry said in a cold voice and the minister quickly nodded as Harry went on. “Moriarty will learn as much about the magical world as he can, I need to teach John and Sherlock the same stuff so we can catch him.”  
       “That would be logical, yes. Why do you need a request from me if they are already on the list, they can learn what they want.”  
       “I want to take them to Hogwarts.” Harry said suddenly.  
       “No, that is not an option Miss Potter.” The minister said immediately.  
       “They will need an extensive library and practical lessons, Hogwarts can and will provide that.” Harry argued.  
       “I don’t care Miss Potter, muggles are not welcome in Hogwarts.”  
       “I’ll make you this deal once,” Harry said after she thought about it for a minute. “I’ll teach something new every week we are there. For instance: The first week I’ll talk about the war during History of Magic and the week after I’ll give a special Defence against the Dark Arts class for a week, so on and so on until Sherlock and John have learnt enough.”  
       The minister seemed to think about this for a long time but ultimately agreed with her, they had asked Harry countless times to teach but she had always refused. This was an offer he would only get once and it was to good to turn down.

The minister had left after he had agreed to Harry’s offer, John and Sherlock were watching the fireplace in awe as the emerald flames extinguished themselves. “So that is travelling by flu?” John asked.  
       “Indeed it is, there is a special powder you will need to do that and you can travel to all the available fireplaces in the world.” Harry explained.  
       “Fascinating.” Sherlock began. “But one more thing, what exactly is Hogwarts?”  
       “Hogwarts is the boarding school I went to when I turned eleven. It was the first place I could call home but it was also the place were the final battle took place between me and Voldemort.” Harry explained with sadness in her eyes.  
       “How many did you loose?” John asked.  
       “It was a school full of children ranging from 11 to 18 and some teachers. I would say to many. It is always to many. The younger ones weren’t allowed to fight but the older kids could if they wanted it. I’ve lost a lot of friends that day.” Harry explained in a flat tone as if to mask her emotions.  
       “I’m sorry, you don’t have to go back there if you don’t want to.” John said.  
       “Well the point is, I want to go back. Make peace with it all and see my first home again. It would be refreshing.”  
       “How are we going to get there anyway? Are we going to teleport there like you did before?” John asked  
       “We can’t apparate into Hogwarts itself, it is warded against a lot of stuff and apparating is one of them.”  
       “So no apparating.” Sherlock said with an relieved breath, he really didn’t like the mode of transportation even if he only experienced once.  
       “I didn’t say that.” Harry corrected. “There is a village next to Hogwarts called Hogsmead. We can apparate there and walk towards the school the rest of the way.” Both of her friends groaned somewhat but Harry ignored them. “We will be at Hogwarts for quite some time, you two will have to notify your contacts and say that you will be unavailable for an undetermined amount of time. If they ask where you are say you are somewhere in Scotland.”  
       “Scotland?” Sherlock asked.  
       “Did I stutter?” Harry sassed with raised eyebrows. “You can contact everyone through your mobile and such, you are lucky we have found a way to use magic an technology at the same time otherwise you would have to resort to sending letters by owl.” Sherlock and John blinked in astonishment and asked themselves if their friend was kidding but they had the feeling she didn’t. “Anyway.” Harry began. “I will have to contact the current headmaster to inform them of our arrival. We will leave for Hogwarts tomorrow morning.”

It was the next day and everything was packed, John didn’t have much stuff to take with him. He was carrying a backpack with some clothes and essentials, Harry had assured them both that she would take care of the clothes because wizards wore different things but he couldn’t just leave his jumpers behind. Sherlock on the other hand was quite grumpy, he had wanted to take as much scientific equipment with him. He had packed two big duffel-bags only with microscopes and such but Harry had stopped him. “Science and magic don’t go together Sherlock, the headmaster won’t stand for this if you arrive with all this stuff.”  
       Sherlock had argued with her for quite some time but after an hour or so he gave up and resorted to the small bag with essentials laying next to the two gigantic duffel-bags. Harry had nodded with a smirk on her face and produced two strange bundles of fabric to the duo in front of her. They both accepted one and unfolded them only to reveal two cloaks. They were dark blue, almost black and the fabric had an almost unnoticeable pattern woven into it. They both inspected them and saw that little runes were covering the surface of the cloak. All in all they looked expensive and quite magnificent. John looked up at Harry and she could see the question in his eyes. “Almost every wizard or witch wears a travelling cloak when they go outside, especially in the winter. These are one of the first presents you’ll get from me, the rest are already in both of your rooms at Hogwarts.”  
       “These are quite expensive.” Sherlock said as he put on his cloak as John did the same, they fount that the cloaks fit them perfectly to their astonishment. They noticed then that Harry had put on the same cloak but hers was of an dark emerald tint instead of their dark blue ones.  
       “Yes they are. But I am rich, like filthy rich. So I can afford to buy you two a present or two, or maybe a lot of them.” The held out her hands to them. “Are you two ready?”   
       Both of her friends nodded and grabbed her hands. Two seconds later they stood in an old snowy village as they looked towards a gigantic castle. Harry laughed to herself and walked towards it. John and Sherlock followed her with an confused gate after they recovered from apparating. “Where are you going Harry?” Sherlock asked.  
       “I am going back home.” She answered as she pointed towards the castle in front of them. It dawned on Sherlock and John that the castle was Hogwarts as they followed her and got closer and closer to the place their friend loved so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it!  
> Any future ideas are always welcome!
> 
> -Anne


	9. We're all stories in the end.

The walk to the castle didn’t take long but Harry loved every minute of it, it took her back in time and it almost felt like she was eleven again. They walked through the big front doors of Hogwarts and Harry felt something restless inside herself still as she finally arrived at her old home again. She had missed the place with all the moving staircases, she had even missed Peeves to a certain point.  
       “How is this possible?” john asked as he looked around with marvelling eyes and saw the staircases move.  
       “Magic John, I thought that would have been obvious.” Harry joked. “Wait until you see the great hall where we will eat every meal, its something you will only believe if you see it with your own two eyes.” She finished with a smirk as she walked towards the hall in question. The doors were closed but Harry still knew the way. She grabbed the doors by their handles and pulled on them. They opened with ease and the three of them walked in, there were a lot of stares and Harry thanked herself for being resourceful enough to think about handing the cloaks to her friends, they would have stuck out like sore thumbs in their muggle clothes now they just looked like travelling wizards. Harry walked somewhat in front of them as they entered and John and Sherlock followed, they halted somewhat when they saw the ceiling of the hall with all the floating candles. Sherlock seemed to catch up quickly and increased his step until he walked next to Harry.  
       “This is not possible, the ceiling must be some sort of glass and those candles must be on some string.” He whispered to her. Harry laughed and answered him. “You need to think with magic Sherlock, the world is not all you perceive of it. This school is were I learnt to use my magic, why would it be so difficult to believe that there is a spell on the ceiling that shows the sky outside and makes the candles float?”  
       “It is not scientifically possible.” Sherlock insisted.  
       “As a friend of mine said some time ago: magic is science we don’t yet understand. He wasn’t completely right, magic is nowhere near being the same as science but I think what he meant to say was: It doesn’t mean something doesn’t exist if you don’t understand it.”  
       Sherlock grumbled to himself as John caught up to them. “What is everyone wearing around here?” He asked with a nod to the people around them.  
       “The students are wearing their school uniform and a robe while the teachers wear any wizard fashion they like.” Harry explained as they reached the part of the hall where the teachers ate their food. She faced the witch in the middle of the table the woman in question had dark curly hair, blue eyes and quite some freckles. She was probably around fifty years old.  
       “Headmistress Granger, I am sorry we are late but I had to set something straight” Harry began as she gave Sherlock a pointed glare. “There is truly no excuse but ‘someone’ wanted to take some things with him that weren’t allowed.”  
       Sherlock didn’t react to the verbal jab, it almost seemed like the detective was bored again but Harry knew better. He was calculating everything he was seeing right now from the construction of the castle to the plates with breakfast food in front of the teachers.  
       “It’s alright Miss, I will take you three to my office so we can talk about the consultant position in peace.” The headmistress said as she stood up and began to lead them out of the hall towards the office in question.

Harry closed the door behind her as they all entered the office she had so often visited in her youth. She looked up at the portraits of all the proceeding headmasters and headmistresses. They all looked down at her in shock but one portrait was the first to speak up. “Harry! You are back!” Said a portrait with an elderly woman, she had silver hair but it was bushy and her brown eyes were full of recognition and love.   
       “Hello Hermione, it’s nice to see you again.” Harry said with a small laugh as she recognised her friend from so long ago. “The portraits can talk?” John asked.  
       “Would you please stop pointing out the obvious.” Sherlock asked with annoyance in his voice but Harry suspected it was not really pointed at John and more on the fact that a painting could indeed talk.  
“It is truly nice to see you again Miss Potter.” Said an more elderly man with an obscenely large silver beard and long hair with the same colour. His blue eyes sparkled behind his half moon spectacles as he addressed Harry.  
       “It’s always nice to see you professor Dumbledore.” Harry answered.  
       “I see you haven’t aged as well as you should have Potter.” Came a snide voice from a portrait with an middle aged man who had greasy black hair and a rather large nose.  
       “Oh shut up Snape, it’s not my fault I can’t die.” Harry said to the portrait but her tone wasn’t filled with hate, it was rather soft as if she was remembering something bittersweet.  
       “It’s still professor Snape to you, even after his death you have to respect your superiors.” Headmistress Granger said with a little laugh. “It’s nice to finally meet you Miss potter.”  
       “Please call me Harry, Miss Potter makes me feel old.” Harry joked.  
       “You are 117 years old Harry.” Sherlock deadpanned.  
       “Indeed I am, that makes me two years older than Dumbledore was when he died and believe me that man never grew up.” Harry said an the portrait of Dumbledore chuckled in agreement.  
       “Alright Harry, my name is Eloise Granger. I am the granddaughter of Hermione Granger who was also headmistress of Hogwarts and Ronald Weasley who was head of the Aurors. I must ask, what are your intentions with becoming the first ever consultant of Hogwarts?” The headmistress asked.  
       “Sherlock and John here are my friends, they are muggle but no one is to know of that fact. They need to learn of the magical world to stop someone who is more dangerous than the dark lord himself ever was. In exchange for their presence I will teach some lessons here. They will be different every week, the first week I will teach about the war in History of Magic and the next week another subject. Sherlock and John will be present with my lessons with the seventh years so they can observe some spells instead of studying they out of a book. We will go back home when they have learnt enough this will not take more than one or two months.” Harry explained.  
       “That is a very specific plan but I will allow it. John and Sherlock can pass as your squib apprentices, they will have full access of the library even the restricted area but you will have to be present when they wish to visit that part. You all have your own quarters where your stuff is already unpacked by the house elves and here are your schedules.” The witch in front of the said as she handed them some pieces of parchment that she had just moments before tapped with her wand. All three of the accepted them and saw that Harry’s schedule was fuller than those of Sherlock and John, Harry’s showed two full days of History of Magic while John’s and Sherlock’s just had two hours of the lesson. “Seeing today is a Monday and your schedule appoints today and tomorrow to those lessons, you should get to the classroom before the class starts. The first two hours are the seventh years so your two companions will attend that lesson. You will eat with the rest of the staff at the head table in the great hall and you will attend every meal so no going off to the library at meal times.” The headmistress explained.  
       “Thank you Miss Granger for giving us the chance.” John said with a nod.  
       “Please call me Eloise, you are staff now and all staff calls me by my first name.”  
       “Alright, thank you Eloise.” Harry said and the three of them left the room.

“What is a squib?” John asked on the way to the History of Magic classroom.  
       “A squib is someone with magical parents but does not poses magic themselves.” Harry explained.  
       “So a muggle born under magical parents.” Sherlock said bluntly.  
       “Indeed.” Harry said. “Here, I have for both of you a book that you might want to read first before studying magic itself.” Harry said as she handed Hogwarts a History to the both of them. “It’s the complete history of Hogwarts, you are going to need it to navigate this place and it will teach you the basics of the school like the different houses.” John and Sherlock looked at the book in their hands and nodded to themselves.   
       They walked inside the classroom and found it already occupied, not by students but by a ghost. “Hello professor Binns, I see that you are still teaching History of Magic?” Harry asked as John and Sherlock gaped at the ghost in front of them.  
       “Indeed. And who might you be?” The ghost asked in a droning tone.  
       “I’m Hariel Potter, you taught me this subject when I was a student here.” Harry said.  
       “Now I remember, it’s been a long time since you were a student. What brought you back?”  
       “I will be teaching your classes this week Mr. Binns, the ministry has asked me to talk about the war and teach other stuff to the students here.”  
       “Alright, but-” The ghost began to say but he was interrupted by a flock of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students arriving just in time for the lesson to start.  
       “How can he be a ghost?” John asked amids the commotion of the students.  
       “Ghosts are very common here at Hogwarts. As for Binns, I don’t know. I heard he was a teacher here and one night he died in his sleep but instead of moving on he kept teaching the subject like he did before.”  
       “So he was a ghost when you were a student here?”  
       “Jupp.” Harry said with a pop of the P.

Everything died down when the students had taken their seats, they looked eagerly at Harry and she understood why. Professor Binns was known for his boring lessons and the students were quite eager to have some change. “Good morning class,” Harry began. “My name is Hariel Potter but you all will address me as professor Potter or Miss Potter.” Harry began and there were quite some exited whispers, there was one student from Ravenclaw in the back of the class who raised his hand. He had dirty blond hair and Harry could see a certain twinkle in his eyes that told of the mystical.“Yes, you in the back. What is your name?”  
       “Ethan Longbottom, Miss Potter.” Said the boy and Harry to hide a smirk as she remembered one of her old friends.  
       “Well Ethan, What is your question?”  
       “Are you family of THE Harry Potter?”  
       Harry smiled as she answered the question. “Yes, I am. He was my grandfather,” Harry lied. “And that is partly why I got this job. I am the first ever consultant of Hogwarts. I will teach another class each week. This week it will be History of Magic and the next week it will be different.” Harry explained. “Now there are some ground rules. These are my apprentices John Watson and Sherlock Holmes.” Harry began as she pointed at each of them. “You will address them by Mr. Watson a Mr. Holmes, they are however squibs and if I ever catch you taking advantage of that fact I will make sure you will be punished to the fullest extent. They have the same power as the professors so they will be able to add and subtract house points and also give you detention if it is needed. They are to be respected at the same level as I am and any who do so otherwise will receive detention.” Harry said firmly, she did this because she knew that squibs are not given the respect they deserved. “Some of you might ask yourself why I would take a squib as apprentice let alone two but there is a simple explanation of that fact: They are the smartest persons I have ever met.” She looked at Sherlock and nodded to him. “What can you tell me about Ethan?” She asked him and gave him free reign of his deductions.  
       “Well it’s quite obvious really.” Sherlock began. “The boy is 18 years old and his clothes tell me that he quite rich but he tries to play it down, they are expensive but he doesn’t care for that and does as he wants with them. His hands are a little dirty and there is obviously dirt under his nails so he likes to care for plants, a horologist perhaps. His eyes are always darting around looking for something that is not there which is a sign that he likes the hidden things-” Sherlock took a breath to continue but Harry interrupted. “That is enough Sherlock, we will leave it at that for now. I have a class to teach after all.” Sherlock looked quite annoyed at her but ultimately nodded when he saw the looks on the faces of the students. They looked astonished at him. It was quite weird for them to see his process and more amazing just because he didn’t practice magic.

“This lesson I will talk about the magical war, what are some things you all know about it?” Harry asked, there were multiple student who raised their hands and Harry pointed to a Gryffindor girl in one of the benches in the front. “Yes you, what is your name?”  
       “Elise Kirk, Miss.”  
       “Alright Miss Kirk, what is your answer to the question?”  
       “The magical war started in 1915 and lasted until 1918 when the dark Lord fell because of Harry potter.” The girl said.  
       “Well Miss Kirk, You are partially right. The magical war has two parts to be exact, the part before Harry Potter and the part after. The part before is quite dull but still important and it starts with a boy named Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle was an orphan but a very special one, he was a wizard and not just any wizard he was the descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself.” There were some murmurs and Sherlock committed the name to memory to research it later on. “This boy grew up to be a very powerful wizard but his views of the world were warped, he believed that there should only be pureblood wizards even though he himself was a halfblood. He was charming and powerful so he acquired a lot of followers while he was at school. There was only one thing he was truly afraid off and that was death, Tom Riddle wanted to live forever so he did the unthinkable: He resorted to dark magic and split his soul. I will not speak of the way it is done or how this piece of magic is called because it is the darkest magic one could ever cast next to the unforgivable curses. It is very important to know that it is not advised to split your soul, the process is painful and dark. When you split your soul you put it in something so when your body dies your soul still lives on in the object you had put it in. Tom Riddle didn’t just split his soul once, he split his soul seven times.” There was a gasp from the students but Harry went on with her teaching. “After his days at Hogwarts were over and he graduated, Tom Riddle decided to find the different objects to put the pieces of soul in. He could have put it in a little pebble and be done with it but Tom was vain, he was the heir of Slytherin and he wanted things from the other houses of Hogwarts. He sought out the locket of Slytherin he had inherited from his mother, the cup of Hufflepuff and the diadem from Ravenclaw. He found those three and put a piece of his soul in each of them. In his school years he had put his soul in his diary and in a ring already. He had always wanted to posses the sword of Gryffindor but he had failed so he put his soul in his pet snake named Nagini.”  
       Harry paused for breath and everyone in the room waited impatiently for her to go on. “Now for those of you who can count know I only named six object while Voldemort had divided his soul seven times. This is because the last time was unintentional for there was a prophesy. A prophesy that told of a person who would be born when the seventh month died by parents who had three times defied Voldemort. That person would be marked by Voldemort as his equal and have the power to destroy him and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. Voldemort got wind of this prophesy and went after the one he thought it to be. He discovered that Harry Potter was born on the last day of July and thought that he was the one from the prophesy. Voldemort went to the house of the Potters and killed Harry’s parents, Harry’s mother begged Voldemort not to kill her baby and instead kill her but leave her baby alone. Voldemort ignored her and killed her and turned to Harry to kill him too, he had uttered the killing curse but something went wrong. The curse deflected and killed Voldemort instead, Harry was the first and only person to survive the killing curse in history. This is because his mother sacrificed herself for him and so invoked the oldest magic known to us, the magic of love. When Voldemort died that day the last bit of his soul entered Harry’s body without him meaning to.  
       The next eleven years went on without a hitch, Harry was raised by his aunt and uncle who were muggles and got his letter to Hogwarts when he turned eleven. Everything seemed peaceful but from that eleventh birthday everything began to go darker. Voldemort tried to get back every year and Harry and his two best friends had to stop him every year, they did things even grown wizards would marvel at. In his first year Harry defeated Voldemort for the first time, in his second year the chamber of secrets opened and the school was terrorised by a basilisk. Harry defeated it when he was twelve and killed the piece of soul Voldemort had put in his diary in the process. In his third year he discovered who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort and in his fourth year he was put in the Triwizard Tournament in order to get him killed. He went up against three other students who were older than him, he had to fight a dragon and find his friends in the lake surrounded by mermaids. The last task was an enormous labyrinth with dangerous creachers hidden inside where the contestants had to find the Triwizard Cup. Harry and his friend Cedric found it and grabbed it at the same time but it teleported them to an graveyard where Cedric was killed immediately. That night was the night that Voldemort returned and tried to kill Harry again. Harry escaped and took Cedric’s body with him back to Hogwarts.  
       The next year was hell for him, no one believed that Voldemort was back and they all made him out for a madman. The ministry sent a woman named Umbrige to teach at Hogwarts and she made Harry’s life a living hell, she even tried to take over the school. Voldemort had lured Harry to the ministry of magic at the end of the year, this is where a big battle took place between Voldemort and Dumbledore, the headmaster at the time. The whole ministry saw the aftermath and were forced to believe that Voldemort was back. Harry and Dumbledore spent the next year searching and researching the little parts of Voldemort’s soul, Dumbledore had found the ring already and killed it. At the end of that year Dumbledore and Harry went to get the locket of Slytherin and succeeded but Dumbledore was killed when they got back and Harry later discovered that the locket was a fake.  
       This is when we enter the last year of the war, Harry and his two best friend were on the run looking for the last five pieces of Voldemort’s soul. This is also the year where the ministry was taken over by Voldemort and a lot of people had to hide. Harry and his friends succeeded in finding and destroying three pieces of Voldemort’s soul, the last part they found and killed was the diadem of Ravenclaw and it was placed in Hogwarts. This is when the battle of Hogwarts took place,a battle between the army of Voldemort and the student’s of Hogwarts, a lot of them died that night. Harry didn’t know that he was the seventh piece of Voldemort’s soul but found out when there was a seize fire, he went to Voldemort right after he did find out because he knew he would have to die for Voldemort could not be fully be defeated until all the soul pieces were destroyed.” Harry’s voice was soft and full of nerves, the students were captivated in the story and Sherlock and John were shocked that this was indeed Harry’s youth she was reliving.  
       “Voldemort casted the killing curse over Harry like he had done so long ago but he didn’t kill Harry, he killed his own soul. Harry played dead and Voldemort thought himself to be triumphant. Voldemort and his army marched towards Hogwarts again and showed the fighters the supposed dead body of Harry. Harry had to hear his friends and old teachers scream his name in sorrow as they thought he was dead. Neville Longbottom, an old friend of Harry stood up to Voldemort and pulled the sword of Gryffindor out of the sorting hat. He and the students attacked the army in front of them even tough they were outnumbered. Voldemort’s snake Nagini was also present and Neville Longbottom cut off it’s head with the sword he had moments before pulled out of the sorting hat and therefore killing the last of Voldemort’s souls. This is when Harry revealed himself to be alive and battled with Voldemort, the man who had so long ago been an orphan boy named Tom Riddle. The battle didn’t take long but it was intense and in the end it was Harry who lived, the dark Lord Voldemort was defeated but the cost was high. A lot of students had been killed that night and a lot of people had to hide that past year.” Harry finished just when the bell rang and the students jumped a little when it did. They were so focused on Harry’s story that they had forgotten the time and it turned out to be lunchtime.  
       “That was your story, wasn’t it?” John asked when the class was gone.  
       “It was, but I had left out some details.” Harry answered.  
       “You became master of death at the battle of Hogwarts.” Sherlock said, it wasn’t a question but Harry nodded non the less. “I rather not talk about it right now, that was quite a trip down memory lane.” Harry said as she walked out of the classroom.

The three of them were walking in silence towards the great hall, John was looking around him with awe while Sherlock was already leafing through Hogwarts a History when they heard cackling coming from above them. All three of them looked up and they saw a ghost unscrewing the chandelier above them. Harry groaned and yelled at him “Peeves, I swear to God. If you drop that chandelier you will regret it.”  
       Peeves looked down and immediately stopped to study the woman who had just yelled at him. “Is that Potter who I see?!” He asked himself.  
       “Yes Peeves and you better behave yourself or I will make certain you will regret it.” Harry repeated.  
       “Potter is back! Potter is back!” He yelled with a cackling voice as he floated away from them as Harry groaned again. By now the whole school would know of her presence, Peeves would make sure of that.  
       “What do I hear about a certain Potter being back?” Asked a familiar voice from her left. Harry turned around and saw one of the twins float her way with a big smile on his face as she stared at him.  
       “That wouldn’t be very nice of her seeing we are friends, she would have sought us out wouldn’t she.” Said a similar voice from her right and when Harry turned to it she saw the other brother floating towards her with the same grin.  
       “Fred, George, oh it is marvellous to see you two again!” Harry said with a big smile as the twins stopped in front of her looked her over.  
       “Serves you right,” Fred said.  
       “We are your friends after all.” George finished.  
       “That’s true.” Harry pointed out.  
       “So, why didn’t you seek us out in the first place?” Fred asked.  
       “I needed to talk with the headmistress and after that I immediately had to teach History of Magic.” Harry explained.  
       “You are teaching that horrid class?” George asked in mock disgust.  
       “Not really, I will teach different classes. More like weekly lessons in different classes. This time I talked about the war in History of Magic, everyone needs to know what we went trough so it will not happen again like it did before.” Harry explained and she saw the pain in the eyes of the twins before her. There was a beat of silence before Harry spoke again. “I have missed you guys so much.” She said this with a sigh. “There were lots of times where I could have used your kinds of fun. It has been a lonely time after everyone left.” She said with a sad smile.  
“When do you finally realise we didn’t really leave.” Fred said with the same smile Harry had.  
       “Fred and I stayed, that is right but the others left something else behind.” George filled in.  
       “What do you mean?” Harry asked.  
       “They left memory’s behind. Memory’s of the fun times you had together.” George said  
       “But they also left children and grandchildren behind, even though you don’t know them.” Fred finished.  
       “You two know I couldn’t be involved with all their lives. I don’t grow old anymore, people would grow suspicious.” Harry argued.  
       “That didn’t stop some of them from learning about you, some of us still remember the girl who lived not the boy who society thinks you were.” George argued back.  
       “I know but I like to keep it that way. The girl who lived is my past and the boy who lived protects it from prying eyes. I don’t want to be a hero anymore, I just want to be a woman who solves crimes with her friends.”  
       “It doesn’t look like that to me Harry.” Fred said with a knowing smile. “To me it looks like you found yourself a new enemy to fight.”  
       “Old habits die hard.” Harry answered with a laugh but deep down she knew that the twins were right, she had found a new enemy but also new friends. Damn her hero complex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took longer to write than normal. The plan was to write a minimum of 3000 words but I just couldn't stop, now the counter is at 4666 words (OOPS).  
> I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> -Anne


	10. A face to face with the end.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so John and Sherlock find themselves face to face with the end.  
> John is baffled, Sherlock doesn't want to believe that this is it and Death just wants to prove a point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo.......  
> Long time no see...  
> I'm sorry for the wait and this chapter is shorter than the last ones but I think it fits with the topic.  
> I hope you like it!

The two days Harry was supposed to teach History of Magic went by fast, Sherlock had finished Hogwarts a History in the first day and began exploring the library for more information. John followed him everywhere as he tried to finish reading the book Harry had given him. He was done by the second day and he had to admit that it was a surprising good read. All the things that went on in Hogwarts were described in the book, the two of them learnt about the different houses and what Harry meant by adding and subtracting points. They wore the robes Harry had bought for them and they had to admit that they were really comfortable. John always wore a cloak above his robes, it made him look more like an authority figure while Sherlock just left it at the normal wizard clothes and he always somehow managed to make them look somewhat dishevelled.  
       The two of them were sitting in the library looking through first year books, the spells fascinated Sherlock while John looked around the place, studying the student around him. They were all working but he noticed the sideway glances they threw at them now and again. He, Sherlock and Harry had become the talk of the castle, this was mostly due to Harry’s presence but the deduction Sherlock had performed the first day had gotten a lot of attention too. The students were baffled by the two squibs who navigated the castle in a peculiar way. The first day they seemed to blunder around but they quickly seemed to come to terms with the world around them but they always seemed baffled about the magic that was performed around them. A group of five sixth year Slytherins had seen this as a weakness and had tried to take advantage of it on the second day, they had done this by casting the levicorpus spell over them both. John and Sherlock had been quite surprised to find themselves upside down, floating in the air as if tied by their ankles. John was surprisingly the first to gather is wits about him as he focused on the laughing students in front of him, Sherlock was analysing the way the spell worked and was therefor quite preoccupied.  
       “You all better let us down-” John began to say in an angry but clam tone but he was interrupted by the group in front of him.  
       “Or you are going to do what?” One of the boys asked.  
       “Are you going to get the mighty ‘Hariel Potter’?” Said the only girl in the group. She said Harry’s name with mock terror and the group laughed at her tone. “How can a History of Magic teacher punish us? You two are just squibs and everyone knows squibs are just as useless as muggles.” The girl went on.  
       “Come one Alva,” One of the boys said to the girl. “We need to go to practise before we are to late, I don’t want to get yelled at by the captain.” The girl who’s name was apparently Alva and was most certainly the leader of the group nodded and they all began to walk away intending to leave Sherlock and John quite literally ‘hanging’. They were stopped however by Sherlock who spoke up just as they set their first steps away from them.  
       “Get us down or I will make sure all of your brooms will get confiscated and each and every one of you will get thrown off the team.” He said in a monotone voice.  
       “You wouldn’t dare.” Alva almost shouted as she spun around to look at him.  
       “Oh, I would.” Sherlock began. “And to top it off, I will take fifty points from Slytherin for every ten seconds you leave me and John hanging. So I suggest you let us down before that time is up.” Sherlock finished.  
Alva growled but did as Sherlock demanded and let them down. Sherlock and John hit the ground with a loud thump and the group of Slytherin quidditch players turned around to walk away from them.  
       “Not so fast.” John said to them and they halted and turned around to look at the small man in front of them. He looked dishevelled due to the jinx they had cast on him but he also looked angry which made the group in front of him pause. Most of the students had known squibs and they were all docile and forgettable so they had expected John and Sherlock to be the same. They now discovered that they had made big mistake in angering the two in front of them.  
       “All of you will have three weeks of detention,” Sherlock began. “You will answer to us every Monday and Friday evening after dinner.” He finished and the group before him let out groans of complaint.  
       “And I will take ten points from Slytherin for every one of you.” John said. “This means fifty points from Slytherin in total.”  
       Some of the students in front of them let out cries of astonishment at the punishment but they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut and walk away towards their quidditch practice.

That encounter with the Slytherin students was another reason why everyone around them was sneaking glances at the apprentices of professor Potter, John was about to mention it to Sherlock when his friend stood up without a word and began to walk out of the room. John quickly caught up to him and was about to ask why they had to leave so suddenly but Sherlock answered for him. “I take it you are about to ask why we had to leave so suddenly, the answer is quite simple: Harry will have a visitor she wants us to meet.”  
       “How do you know that?”  
       “The simplest of deductions Watson.”  
       “She told you didn’t she?” John asked in a sceptical tone. Sherlock didn’t answer him but he did smile so John took that as a yes. They arrived at Harry’s room some time later, it was spacious but practical with a nice and big bed in the corner, a bureau on the other side of the room and a couch and two chairs scattered around the place so they could relax.  
       Harry was slightly pacing around the room while a little girl sat on the sofa, John presumed her to be a student even though she wasn’t wearing an uniform and looked a little too young for Hogwarts.  
       “Your late.” The girl said to Sherlock and John realised that this must be the person Harry wanted them to meet.  
       “Time is irrelevant.” Sherlock said with a dismissive waive of his hand.  
       “In my profession, punctuality is everything.” The child shot back.  
       “Really?” Sherlock said in a mock tone and John identified the tone quickly, it meant that Sherlock was going to be an ass. “And what is this profession? Fairy Princess?” The detective finished. John was about to speak up but he was interrupted by another voice. “SHERLOCK WILLIAM SCOT HOLMES YOU WILL BEHAVE YOURSELF!” Harry shouted in her teacher voice and Sherlock found himself unable to argue with her.  
       “It’s alright Hariel, he doesn’t know and his ignorance is understandable.” The girl cut in before Harry could go on a tirade.  
       “I am hardly ignorant.” Sherlock defended in a annoyed tone.  
       “You are, all mortals are to a point.”  
       “You mean to say that you are not mortal?” John asked.  
       “I am not.” The girl confirmed.  
       “Then what are you?”  
       “I am Death.” The girl before them said.  
       “Death?” John asked.  
       “You don’t have to repeat my words.”  
       “But how can you be Death, you are just a-” John began but he was interrupted by Death.  
       “Just a girl? So young? A person?” She filled in for him. “I assure you that I have heard it all.”  
       “Death is here on my request, you two had to meet her to understand.” Harry cut in once again. “I am what they call Master of Death but you two had to understand that that title isn’t almighty, I can command her to do as I say but there are consequences.”  
       “What consequences?” Sherlock asked after some time of silence.  
       “Every action has a reaction.” Death explained. “If you throw something in the air it has to come down eventually, if you tug on a string you will pull something towards you and if I am forced to do something there will be a reaction to keep the balance of the world on its feet. Hariel can command me to resurrect someone but someone else on this world will die to keep the balance, Hariel may command me but I have to keep to natures rules and you two need to understand that just as Hariel had to do when she first became my master.”  
“I understand the balance of the world and whatnot, its quite obvious.” Sherlock said. “But what I don’t understand is that you are just a little girl.”  
       Death chuckled at his words and began to speak. “I am Death and Death is something special. Death is equal to all, I don’t discriminate because everyone will end one day.” As Death spoke she began to change, she transformed in an old man with grey hair and a bent back, he went on speaking with an brittle voice. “People curse me for taking the things they love, the little girl wants her bunny back who died of old age, the middle aged woman weeps for the son she could not save from sickness and the old man will beg for more time in this world so he can see his family once again.” Death transformed again and turned into a man with slightly balding hair but stood proudly before them as he went on speaking. “Death is what makes life special, I light the fire under your arses because you all know your days are numbered and people do great things out of the fear of me.” Death transfered once again and this time a young woman with long auburn hair and a flowing black dress stood in front of them. “Everyone fears me, hates me or they do both but eventually they will all greet me because that is how things are. Death is tragic and sad but everything is sad once it’s over and the ones who are left on this earth will mourn the dead but eventually they will think back at the good times, the times they were happy with their loved ones and they will know that it was meant to be.” When Death changed this time she changed back to the little girl and she looked into the eyes of Sherlock and John as she spoke. “Everyone will deal with Death and they will curse me and fear me but later on they will realise something and that something is the beauty of it all, the collateral beauty. Because all things that end do it with grace and finality, that end will make you realise the beauty of the life they had lived. All things must end one day, even Hariel over here. She was born mortal and she will die mortal even if it will be later than expected.” Death turned towards Harry and nodded. “Remember the warning I gave you, the balance is wavering and you have to fix it after you’re done teaching here.”  
       Harry nodded and smiled at Death. “I will fix it as well as I can, take care Death.”  
       Death smiled back and was about to turn around when she was stopped by Sherlock’s words. “That’s it?”  
       Death looked at him with a knowing look. “You are smart Mr. Holmes but you reject what is right in front of you, some will say that you are ignorant but I just say that you are a realist and believe me: I am as real as it gets. You have to learn to accept things that are possible with the use magic, you see it all around you but you still reject it to a point. You have entered a world with misery and questions that even the best wizzards and witches couldn’t solve, you have to accept that you won’t know everything and do it fast because there will come a time when you need to trust in the mystical and that time is approaching rapidly.” She turned away from them and vanished without a trace the only thing they heard was a soft voice that somehow filled the room and said “Don’t mourn the dead-” but faded away before they could hear the ending of the sentence.  
       “Don’t mourn the dead?” John asked as if speaking to no one.  
       Harry chuckled “It’s Death’s saying: ‘Don’t mourn the dead, pity the living.’”  
       “Sounds morbid.” John commented.  
       “It is if you look at it from your standpoint but I get it. If you live as long as I have you accept Death with all her flaws and all her beauty. Many tried to outrun her but only a few succeeded. When you succeed you can only watch as the people around you, the ones you love eventually die. She is right you know, Death has a beauty to itself and ‘collateral beauty’ is a great way to describe it.” Harry explained.  
       “What was the warning Death gave you?” Sherlock asked.  
       Harry’s face darkened. “Moriarty has been making plans, enough of them to upset Death.”  
       “Than we have to go back and stop him.” John said in a alarmed tone.  
       “No,” Harry said. “Not yet. We have time to finish your training. The plans of Moriarty are just that: plans. He hasn’t set anything in motion yet but you two need to study, especially you Sherlock.” Harry said as she pointed at the detective. “And you need to believe in those studies to defeat Moriarty.  
       “We are going to stop a master criminal by learning something we can’t use ourselves?” John asked.  
       “That is the plan.” Harry stated as she looked at Sherlock who nodded in understanding. “I will teach Defence Against the Dark Arts next time, you two are going to be present at every lesson I teach because they will be the most important lessons you two will ever experience in your lives.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it!  
> Any future ideas are always welcome!
> 
> -Anne


	11. We all fear something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I am late again, I don't know why but my writing doesn't come as easy anymore. I still love to write but it isn't as easy as in the beginning.  
> I'm sorry I'm late gain, nothing to do about it but yeah... Here is the new chapter.

The rest of the week went on quickly, Harry’s lessons in History of Magic were done for the week so she could focus on helping Sherlock and John. There were a lot of questions and the answers Harry gave only resulted into more questions. John and Sherlock spent all their times in the library with quick breaks for breakfast, lunch, dinner and some sleep. Harry could almost swear that Sherlock even slept in the library but the man always left his room when she had to go to the morning staff meeting. Harry helped with their learning as much as she could but she had her teacher duty’s to do so she wasn’t as much present as she wanted. This went on for three days until she had to work late one day, she was patrolling the corridors to look for student out of bed when she saw it, there was a soft light coming from the library. She quickly walked towards it to scold the offending student and retract a lot of points when she saw which part of the library the lantern light was coming from. The light was positioned in the forbidden section and she saw someone walking along the rows of books. Harry sneaked closer on quiet feet to investigate and she discovered no other than Sherlock browsing through the books. “You better have a good reason for being here Sherlock.” She said and the man in question jumped somewhat in shock.   
       “Ehm-, uh-, Hariel, I didn’t expect to see you here.” The man said flabbergasted and Harry was quite astonished to see the man at a loss for words.  
       “Get your arse over here Sherlock, it is named the forbidden section for a reason.” Harry said in a stern tone, she almost felt like Minerva in this moment and she had the urge to give sherlock quite the scolding.  
       “I was just resuming my research from the other day.” Sherlock tried to explain.,  
       “I never brought you in here Sherlock, and the rules of the headmistress were clear. You are only allowed in there with me present,” Harry said with a meaningful look, “does this mean that you have been in here the last few days?”  
       “I can neither confirm or deny that fact.” Sherlock stated.  
       “Of course,” Harry said with a sigh, “Lets just get back to bed, I’m tired and the defence against the dark arts lessons start tomorrow. We best get some sleep before it is to late.” Sherlock nodded and put the books back were he found them.

The next day started early and breakfast was a blur, Harry normally didn’t mind the early mornings but she definitely needed coffee right now so she wouldn’t snap at her friends. The three of them walked towards the classroom in silence, this silence was shattered with the first steps they set in the classroom. The students were already present but also all over the place, most of them were talking loudly to each other but some were running around the classroom. Harry sighed and made herself present by walking to the front of the room with Sherlock and John following her. The students calmed down and Harry noticed Ethan Longbottom sitting in the front row. They were fourth year students and Harry had a special lesson planned for them, one she had gotten a long time ago herself when she was their age. She reached the front of the room and stood next to a large and old looking cabinet, she turned to look at the class when the cabinet shook somewhat as if something was trapped inside it. Sherlock and John looked startled while the class muttered amongst themselves. “Good morning class, I have a special lesson planned for you all today.” Harry began, “Who amongst you knows what a boggart is?” Ethan was the first to put up his hand and Harry pointed him out.  
       “A boggart is a creacher that takes the form of the thing you fear most.” Ethan answered.  
       “Well said, five points for Ravenclaw. Boggarts are amortal, this means that they were never alive to begin with so they can’t die, it’s a non-being. No one knows what a boggart really looks like because it takes the shape of the thing you fear most. The boggart has one weakness and that weakness is laughter.” Harry explained, she went on to teach the class how to use the riddikulus charm while Sherlock and John kept looking at the cabinet besides Harry.  
       “Now,” Harry began after all the explanations, “You all have noticed this cabinet and most of you must have figured out that a boggart resides inside it. I want you all to focus on your worst fear and then turn it in something comical so we can practice the spell.”

The students were talking amongst themselves to discuss what each of them should do when Harry took Sherlock and John aside and out of earshot of the class. She shot a look at the children to make sure they couldn’t overhear them. “You two need to stay away from that boggart, you don’t have any protection from it and I don’t need Moriarty to step out of that cabinet.” She said with a stern look.  
       “It can do that?” John asked  
       “Yes it can, and you two can’t cast a spell to protect yourself from it. Just observe but don’t get cocky, I don’t want to explain your fears to the class.”  
       John and Sherlock nodded and Harry smiled at them. “This will be a fun lesson for the kids, I remember the first time my class faced a boggart.” Harry said and trailed off at the thought of Snape in a dress, it was still a funny sight to remember.  
       “You had this lesson too?” Sherlock asked.  
       “Yes, the best friend of my father taught it even though I didn’t know he had known my parents at the time. That year was kind of confusing.” Harry mused.  
       “How so?” John asked.  
       “Well, my godfather had escaped from the most dangerous prison in the magical world. He was another of my father’s best friends and he came to Hogwarts to kill the third friend who had betrayed my parents, he was the rat of my best friend.”  
       “A rat?”  
       “Oh, that isn’t weird at all. My father could change into a stag.” Harry said in a matter of fact tone.  
       John and Sherlock looked at each other and John gave a shrug, as if to say: _it’s magic mate, what can you do about it?_

The class had discussed their fears and were standing in a line before the cabinet, Harry stood at the back of the line to make sure the boggart wouldn’t take the form of a dementor, that would be quite problematic. The first student stepped forward and the cabinet shook a few times before the doors slammed open and the first fear stepped in front of them. It was a clown, not very original but still logical. The student trembled a little when he saw the clown in front of him but he quickly casted the spell. The clown’s nose swelled and swelled until it burst with a pop, the whole class was laughing and the boggart stumbled back a little.  
       “Alright, next in line.” Harry called above the laughter and the students followed her orders. The next twenty minutes was full of laughter and antics as the students became more and more creative with their solutions to their fears. Harry saw the obvious spider that was turned into a bouncing ball and the snake with a knot in his body. The class was enjoying itself and Harry turned to look at John who was apparently studying her with a little frown on his face. Harry walked over to him “What is wrong captain?” Harry said with a little smile.  
       John smiled back at the sound of his rank from his army days. “I noticed that you keep away from that boggart just as much as me. Why do that?” He asked  
       “My biggest fear isn’t something to share with fourth year students.” Harry answered.  
       “Is is Voldemort?”  
       “No, my biggest fear is fear itself.”  
       “How does that work?”  
       “You will see in the next period, I will teach some seventh year students then.”  
       John nodded but didn’t understand fully but he knew his questions would be answered in due time. Then he noticed that Sherlock wasn’t standing next to him anymore, he looked around for his friend and froze. Sherlock was almost standing in front of the cabinet behind a student who was casting his spell over the boggart. The student laughed at his rendition of his mummy, it had stumbled backward into the cabinet when he made it trip over it’s own bonds. The student walked away from the line which left Sherlock in front of the cabinet.  
       John watched in horror as he saw a hand emerge from the darkness in the cabinet, it was a normal hand but there was a certain vibe about it. The class went silent and Harry looked over only to see a man in a suit walk out of the closet, but it wasn’t just some man, it was Sherlock. There was something wrong though, Sherlock looked at his boggart with a frown. Then it began to talk and everything made sense.  
       “You are wondering who I am, aren’t you?” The fake Sherlock asked but his voice was high and full of glee, nothing like the bored tone of Sherlock’s voice. The detective had put two and two together and was staring at his biggest fear, that was the moment Harry saw it too. She had seen that sort of body language before and it was quite obvious. The fake Sherlock was wearing a Westwood suit with a shit eating grin to match, the tone of the voice and the vibe made sense. Sherlock’s biggest fear was turning into Moriarty and it was awful to see it, the boggart looked like a cold and broken version of her friend the detective.

John acted before Harry could, she was still shocked to see such a cold side of her friend but John shook if off and ran towards his friend. Sherlock was frozen, he didn’t look scared exactly but there was a spark in his eyes that spoke of the unexpected. He hadn’t expected this turn of events but now that he saw it, it made sense. John reached Sherlock’s side and pushed him out of the way as if to shield Sherlock from his own shadow. This wasn’t the best course of action and Harry could tell that he hadn’t thought it through. She made to run at him but froze at the same time as John did.   
       The boggart was changing again with a bang, suddenly there was the smell of blood in the room as a corpse lay on the ground. John stared at Sherlock as he lay dead before him in a puddle of his own blood, his body was broken and his eyes stared at nothing. John stumbled a step backwards as he looked at his dead friend. John’s face was full of pain as he looked on, shaking his head as if denial could make the vision go away, Harry made a small sound of pain but she regretted it instantly.   
The sound made John focus on her voice and the boggart changed again, this time it wasn’t made up, this time the boggart changed into a memory. It was still a corpse, Harry’s corpse. It lay there with the same staring eyes Sherlock’s corpse had, the bullet holes in her neck and shoulder were prominent as a pool of blood gathered beneath her corpse. John was now ashen with shock and couldn’t walk away, the only thing he could do is shake his head and constantly mutter the words “No” and “Not again” as he saw her lying there.  
       This was the time when Harry finally snapped into action, she marched towards her friends and glared at the boggart. She cast the spell over the boggart and the spell was so powerful that it didn’t even change form into something funny, the boggart was blasted back into the cabinet and she locked it with a flick of her wand. Harry didn’t even give a second glance at it and quickly turned around to look at her friends. Sherlock stood next to John but was mostly fine, he was more shocked about John’s boggart than by his own. John was still staring at the ground where both of his friend’s corpses laid just a few second before.   
       “John?” Harry asked but there was no reaction from him. “John?” she asked again but she couldn’t make contact with the man before her. She grabbed John with both hands, his face between her hands and she forced him to look her in the eyes. “Sherlock lives and I am not dead John. I am much harder to kill than that and Moriarty can try all he wants but I am to stubborn to die, I always was to stubborn.” Harry insisted and she seemed to have gotten through to him.  
       “But you… It was so real…” John sputtered.  
       “Your fears always seem so real, until you face them. They will always exist but you can learn to live with them.”  
       John nodded weakly and Harry let his face go and turned to the students. They had seen and heard everything and were now looking at their teachers with a different look, a look that showed respect.  
       “Class is dismissed, go have lunch early.” Harry said and the students flowed out of the room after her dismissal.

       “Moriarty can still kill you.” John said when the students were gone.  
       Harry sighed and looked at her friends, “He can… but there are just a few ways in which I can truly die.”  
       “What if he figures them out?” John asked in a slightly higher voice than normal.  
       “I doubt it John, I know only one way in which I can die and that is when I give up being master of Death.”  
       “But there are other ways?” Sherlock asked.  
       “There are, Death knows a few but physical harm can’t kill me as far as I know.”  
       “What if he decides to behead you, or tries to blow you up?” John asked franticly as he was still upset to see her corpse lying on the ground.  
       “I will survive both of those things, it will take longer than normal but I will live.” Harry said in a calm tone.  
       John sighed in a defeated tone and sat down heavily on one of the benches the students normally sit on. “I just-” He began but stopped before he could finish the sentence. He began again a minute later after he had rethought his statement, “I can’t bare the thought of you two dead, especially you Harry.” He looked up at his two friends and saw their looks of concern. “I have lost so many of my friends when I was in the army and I would have thought I was used to it but just the thought of you two dead in front of me makes me nauseous.”  
       “We would never expect you to get over that fear John.” Sherlock said as he patted John’s shoulder in a rare act of compassion.  
       “You were in the army John,” Harry said as she put her hand of his other shoulder. “This means you have fought for your friends around you.”  
       John chuckled, “Most people would say that I have fought for my country.” He said.  
       “Most people are stupid.” Sherlock said with a smirk.  
       “He is right,” Harry said, “You might have gone there for your country but you fought with your friends. I can tell from experience that those friends were more important than your country ever was.”  
       John looked up at Harry, he had forgotten how she had fought too. She had saved the world but he could see now that the world wasn’t as important to her than her friends had been. He could see her tear the world apart to keep the ones close to her safe. She was truly a woman to be reckoned with. Then he looked at Sherlock and he could see the worry in his eyes even though the man tried to hide it and he could see him do everything he could for John without asking anything in return.   
       He smiled to himself as he looked at the two in font of him and thanked the heavens that he could call those two extraordinary people his friends, he would do anything in his power to keep those two safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it!  
> Any future ideas are always welcome!
> 
> -Anne


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